Tomah Journal - Printable Version

Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com

Published - Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Guardsmen remembered at Tomah VA's Memorial Day program

By Steve Rundio

Twenty-seven thousand Wisconsin soldiers have died in battle since the state’s founding in 1848, but Lt. Col. Brendan Smith said “the numbers reveal no flesh, no blood, no faces.” So, he told the story of Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Todd D. Olson, who died while fighting in Iraq.

Smith, Director of Operations at Volk Field, was the guest speaker at the annual Memorial Day program conducted Friday at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah.

Olson died at the age of 36 on Dec. 26, 2004, from an improvised explosive device while conducting foot patrol in Iraq. Smith described him as a civic leader in the Clark County community of Loyal. He was an agricultural loan officer in the local bank, he coached youth football, was active in his church and served as president of the local Lion’s Club. He was married with four children.

“He was as fine a citizen as there was in Loyal, Wisconsin,” Smith said. “Loyal had lost a pillar of this central Wisconsin community.”

Smith said Olson, like so many other soldiers, “signed up to serve their country, and they asked only one thing in return — to be remembered when they made the ultimate sacrifice.”

Olson is one of 93 Wisconsin soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (all but six were killed in Iraq). All 93 were listed in the printed program under “Tribute to the Fallen,” and their names were read during the ceremony.

Smith said veterans deserve a tribute on Memorial Day.

“In too many places, Memorial Day is just a 3-day holiday — the start of summer,” Smith said.

Trish Van Ten Haaf, acting Tomah VA Director, urged people to participate in the one-minute moment of silence at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.

“We owe them much, but most of all, we owe them a place on our hearts,” she said.