OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Three service members who died for our country in Iraq are being honored in Oshkosh.
A new monument was unveiled for them Saturday.
Sergeant Andrew Wallace, Private First Class Brent Vroman, and Captain Benjamin Jansky will forever be remembered with this monument at the South Park Memorial Complex.
The three servicemen were all in their twenties when they lost their lives fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“We don’t remember whether they were Pfc’s or whether they were General Officers. We remember Brent, we remember Andrew, we remember Ben. We remember a wrestler, a gym teacher, a father,” says U.S. Army Reserve Retired Major Jonathan Bratz.
All three of these men had special connections to the city of Oshkosh.
Vroman was born in Oshkosh, Jansky was from Illinois but attended UW Oshkosh, Wallace also attended UW Oshkosh and was a teacher at Oshkosh North.
President of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter #437 Duane Canon tells FOX 11 this monument was a long time coming, and it’s time to honor them.
“I brought the idea up to them last year, something had to be done. Our chapter worked very hard to get this organized It takes time, it is a great honor to do this for these three individuals.”
Each serviceman had family members from all over present that were able to take part in the unveiling.
“It is so we remember what these folks did for us. The sacrifice, not only of the soldier or the marine, or the sailor or the airman. But the sacrifice of the families left behind,” says Bratz.
This is the first monument at the South Park Memorial complex for the Gulf War and the War on Terrorism.
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