Duty, Honor, Country and Wisconsin

Book excerpt: Nearly 27,000 men and women from Wisconsin have made the Ultimate Sacrifice in the nation's wars, from the Civil War to the two World Wars to Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. They are represented in "Duty, Honor, Country and Wisconsin" by several dozen men and women ranging from Oak Creek to Mayville and Beaver Dam to Menomonie to Sauk City / Prairie du Sac; and from Marshfield to Laona to Ettrick to Waupun; and from Dousman to Plover to Milwaukee. Author Tom Mueller has been reporting on this topic for three decades, and this is his fourth book. It includes more than two dozen who were lost in World War II, and two chapters about the 37 Wisconsin MIAs in Vietnam - the most extensive coverage of them as a group in decades, if not ever. Plus the stories of seven Civil War veterans who became Wisconsin governor, and some surprising details about Badger State men in World War I. And a review of the women who have made the Ultimate Sacrifice and how that has sharply increased in the last decade. The book also has interviews with more than three dozen veterans of wars ranging from World War II to Afghanistan.