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Pope County Tribune - Starbuck Times
Written by Amy Chaffins - Pope County Tribune New Editor   
Thursday, 22 July 2010 11:48

Veterans exhibit re-opened at Pope County Museum July 21

Community invited to open house

The Pope County Museum will host an open house on Wednesday, July 21, to re-open the exhibit in tribute to Pope County residents who have served our country in the armed forces. The military service wall is comprised of over 1,500 photographs of Pope County veterans and active duty personnel, including over 350 new photographs.

Veterans from every conflict since the Civil War are represented, and each one has ties to Pope County. One of the recent additions to the wall is Peder S. Reque, who took part in Sherman's March to the Sea in the Civil War before moving west to become Pope County's first resident Lutheran pastor.

Another new addition to the wall is Arthur Troness, who survived the Bataan Death March in WWII. His memoirs of his experience as a Japanese POW are available at the museum. He also recorded a video interview with his daughter about his experiences. After the war, he had a long career as an optometrist in Glenwood.

Women are also represented. Olga (Store) VanWinkle was one of the first members of the Women's Army Corps (WACS). She lied about her age to get into the service and started her career as a sousaphone player. After receiving her commission as an officer, she was second in command over a working company of parachute riggers, tower operators, cooks, and more.

Afghanistan veteran Todd Guggisberg served as Battalion Commander of the group Support Battalion in the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne). They were deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 where they conducted special reconnaissance, direct action and foreign internal defense missions.

These are just a few of the men and women being honored at the museum.

The open house will be from 2-6 p.m. Wednesday, July 21 as part of Glenwood's Waterama Celebration. Admission is free all summer (donations are encouraged) so stop in anytime. The museum is located at 809 South Lakeshore Drive in Glenwood. Call 320-634-3293 or visit www.popecountymuseum.wordpress.com for more information.

Veterans who have ever lived in Pope County and are not represented on the wall are encouraged to bring in a photo and it will be added to the exhibit at the next update.