Special Projects

“What a waste.” Those were the words spoken again and again by Earl Paulich in reference to the loss of his brother, Vietnam War veteran Patrick James Paulich, who died in combat on Nov. 30, 1970 at 20-years-old. Only their mother called him Patrick, though. To everyone else he knew he was Pat. Pat was […]

James R. Neubauer grew up in Portage, Wis., a small town towards the center of Wisconsin. At a young 15-years-old, he joined the military and would spend the next 19 years as a dedicated American soldier. His only remaining loved ones are his niece and nephew Cheryl Barton and Dennis Simonson. “My uncle James was […]

For years, Larry Knapp searched for any link to the friend he lost years ago on a dark night in Vietnam, 1966. With the thought of his friend Nathaniel Merriweather close to his heart, Knapp never stopped searching. Where was Merriweather buried? He wondered of the young man he only knew had come from Milwaukee (but […]

On Facebook, Gerald Schultz’s son, Daniel, has posted a picture of a visit he made to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. He stands in front of his father’s name, and you can see the reflection of the son in the Wall. “Here at the Vietnam Wall. Found my dad’s name,” wrote Schultz, 47. “I am so […]

James W. Lenz is remembered by his sister Carol Rollins as a smart and helpful child, and later a popular and good looking young man, but he always had a hard time staying out of trouble. In the year 1969 a young Lenz, of Milwaukee, faced a judge for a stealing a car and going […]

The journalism students were given one task: To find each of the 1,244 missing photographs of Vietnam veterans from Wisconsin who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country 40 years ago. But in some cases, they found the photos but also families whose shattering losses remained so emotionally vivid they couldn’t put them into public words. That […]

Many days, you can find Terry Kramer, a Vietnam-era veteran who lives in Baraboo, sitting in the Milwaukee Public Library and digging though records to find faces to put with names on a very important list. Kramer, who makes the 116-mile drive each way to Milwaukee for his research, has found many of the fallen […]

Andrew Johnson stood quietly in the front of a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee classroom with a poster that read, “Help Find the last 18,” as students filed in for their next class. Johnson, a small newspaper publisher, has taken on an incredible task—finding a photo for every person who was killed in the Vietnam War from […]

When Melissa Thornton, 34, made her friend Scott a sweatshirt as a Christmas gift, she hardly knew what would become of it. It was a basic hoodie with two words printed on it: Milwaukee Home. “He loved it, he wore it out, and people asked where he got it,” says Thornton. The requests prompted Thornton […]

Mounds of scar tissue and vast expanses of ink cover Carly Johnston’s body — a constant reminder of an inner hell. For her, it is the unseen wounds which are the deepest. A scar on her chest represents a moment in her life she will never forget. Infrared burns are all remaining of her rapist — his […]

If you own a cow in Wisconsin and you milk her, store and cool that milk in a tank, bottle it, and sell it, you’re a criminal in the eyes of the state, at least since 1949, when it was decreed in Wisconsin that milk must be pasteurized, or cooked, to kill off contaminating bacteria, […]

Even with the city’s architectural and economic growth since the recession — it hasn’t been happy days for every Milwaukee citizen. Full story: multimedia website