Defeating the British during the naval Battle of Lake Erie in 1813 earned Oliver Hazard Perry a place in history, however it is his words in a letter to General William Henry Harrison that are remembered more than he is. “We have met the enemy and they are ours…..” Perry was flying a battle flag with another immortal expression: “Don’t give up the ship.” Those words were uttered by James Lawrence as he lay dying aboard the USS Chesapeake.
About 160 years later - somewhere
around 1980 - the Navy was recruiting with other memorable words. “It’s not a
job, it’s an adventure.” During World
War ll slogans encouraged young men to “Join the Navy and See the World.” At
the time, one could pick up forms at the Algoma Record Herald office, however
those picking up the material knew war would not be a cake walk and seeing the
world would be no vacation. It wasn’t only the Navy though. Young men from Ahnapee/Algoma
and throughout Kewaunee County went into all branches of the military.
Ahnapee’s first known to serve in
the Navy were DeWayne Stebbins and Henry Harkins. Harkins arrived in Wolf
River, now Algoma, in the 1850s and was a Lake Michigan and Ahnapee captain in his
real life. He entered the Navy as an ensign in 1862 and quickly became an
acting master. Harkins manned the guns on the Cumberland in its battle with the Confederate USS Merrimac. Though the Cumberland was sunk, Harkins was one of
the survivors who avoided capture by swimming away. Hank Harkins also served as an officer with Porter and Selfridge on the
Mississippi River fleets.
Stebbins, who was little more
than a child when he came to Wolf River with his parents, went on to work for
C.G. Boalt and Edward Decker in the shipping and forwarding business until 1881
when he was appointed cashier in Decker’s Banking House of Ahnapee. Stebbins became
the newspaper editor and a state senator who eventually became the name sake of
the Stebbins Hotel. Stebbins’ importance is reflected in the fact that he had
the first telephone in town.
During the
Great War, Stebbins enlisted in Co. A, 21st Wisconsin but then was given a
naval commission as a master's mate. Eventually he was promoted to master and
transferred to the Kickapoo, a double turreted monitor that was sent to
Farragut's fleet at Mobile. Following that, Stebbins was transferred to the
steamer Michigan where he remained until discharged. When years later he
became president of the Wisconsin Battleship Committee, the appointment was
most appropriate.
DeWayne
Stebbins was credited with saving the life of General Ulysses S. Grant during
the Civil War, although the fact was never actually proven. As the story
unfolds, Stebbins was serving in Porter's Fleet during the siege at Vicksburg.
One night when Stebbins was Officer of the Deck on the Mound City, a
sentry challenged men approaching in a small skiff. Stebbins ordered his men to
fire thinking the approaching men were spies, but suddenly delayed the command
to make sure he didn't fire on his own men. Just then, a voice in the darkness
was heard to say, "General Grant desires to see Admiral Porter." If
the story is true, “Big Steb” might have changed the course of U.S. history.
George Marr,
Sr. was another who served in the Navy during the Civil War. He wasn’t drafted
from Ahnapee, but at the war’s end, he came west and settled in Ahnapee where
he too made an impact.
In December 1917, Wisconsin was
asked to “give 800 boys to the Navy” by February. At the time, the country
wanted 20,000 seamen to help crush the German submarines. Those who were
thinking about enlisting were admonished to do so quickly because a second
draft and coming and that meant there would be no choice. The country needed
seamen and addressing egos seemed to work.
Early in 1918 men were
encouraged to join the Navy while being told the “pick of American manhood is
in the Navy.” It was further said such men were physically perfect, mentally
alert and morally sound. Articles emphasized the physical training would add
years to one’s life while building one up to a point where illness would be
rare. The Navy offered a chance to earn good money at the government’s expense,
to get free clothes, free room and board, and an opportunity for adventure.
Each city’s postmaster had information for those who didn’t go to the Milwaukee
recruiting office. John Wizner must have been caught up in the fever. He was
visiting in Algoma in February 1918 when he left for his home in Minnesota with
plans to sell his farm and enlist in the Navy.
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| USS Cowell, 1960 |
At a time when seamen were touted as the cream
of the crop, Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels made a statement about the
preventable diseases men in the Army and Navy were contracting as a result of
an unclean and immoral life. Everybody knew what that meant. The Navy needed
doctors, and Lyman Dockery was
one commissioned a lieutenant in the Naval Medical Corp. He was born in Green
Bay but in later life associated with Dr. Dana in Kewaunee. Dockery graduated
from Marquette College of Medicine in 1917, just in time for the war, and
married a Navy nurse.
Krok native Anton Flegel was another Navy man. Enlisting in the summer
of 1918, Flegel didn’t see service outside the U.S. but honed his skills,
eventually leasing a service station in Luxemburg in May 1923. Flegel
engaged in his own business handling Shell Oil Products. Civil War veteran
Frank Gregor’s sons served in World War l. Stephen and Byron served in the Army
in France while son Albert served his country at home running the farm. It was
Gregor’s son Louis who served abroad in the U.S. Navy.
Kewaunee County did its best
for Louis Gregor and the rest of its boys. Harry Crawford was aboard the U.S.S. Connecticut in December 1917 when
he wrote to Mr. M. Wochos, Chairman of Kewaunee County Chapter of American Red
Cross, to say thanks for the Red Cross package he received. William Burke was an ensign at sea aboard the
U.S.S. Cuyana in April 1919 when he
wrote to the paper. When Burke got home to Casco for Memorial Day, he was in
charge of the 20 returned soldiers who marched to the cemetery to pay honor to
the military buried there.
Luxemburg’s Edward Sell was at
the marine barracks at Pearl Harbor when the attack started. It was several
weeks before his family knew he was safe. Donald Gordon and Richard Cmeyla’s
parents knew they were stationed at Pearl and they too got word of their sons’
safety weeks later. Gerhart later mentioned the time he was on the gangplank
and spotted Gordon. The men had a lot to say to each other. Eldor Eggert and
Ray Damas were stateside early in 1942 waiting to be shipped out. Both newbies
felt there was “no place better than the Navy for young men.” Early in 1942
Howard Wolf received publicity for his heroic efforts rescuing crewmen. Wolf
was in the Coast Guard when his cutter the Alexander
Hamilton was sunk by enemy action in the Atlantic near Iceland. Frank
Prokash, Jr. and Roy LeCloux were thought to be aboard the same cutter.
Sylvester Ullsperger was a Navy
search and rescue pilot who later became an air traffic controller. Bill Storm
was a graduate of the Naval Academy and Jim Lindeke was a medical corpsman. Seaman
Richard Johnson served as the lowly Messenger of the Watch when he reported to
the bridge – bringing coffee to the men on the watch - on a particularly stormy
day while the captain was losing his cool with the man at the wheel who was
unable to keep the ship on course. Nineteen year old Rich spoke up and said he
could do it. The “Old Man” had had it and told the kid to take the wheel. The
kid did it. He had grown up in a Lake Michigan commercial fishing family and as
early as 6 or 7 years old took the wheel while the men were setting or pulling
in the nets. From then on it was the commercial fisherman who took the captain
up river for drinks or wherever he was going in his launch. Seaman Frank
Schmidt was also a 6 year old at the wheel of his dad’s fish tug. He was one who witnessed the testing of the
atomic bomb. Ed Goetz always said Harry Truman saved his life. Goetz was in the
Navy training fighter pilots in Alabama. Fighter pilots were going down at an
astonishing rate and in July 1945, Ed got his orders “to go.” Before it
happened, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, and Ed was eventually discharged.
Ed was over 100 and still sharing the memories when he died in 2014. Donald
Pfuehler’s desire to serve his country made newspapers as far as Washington
D.C. Pfuehler was working at Kewaunee
Shipbuilding and Engineering when he enlisted in the Army. For some reason the
Army felt there was something wrong with his feet and rejected him. To show the
Army, Pfuehler hoofed it from the Green Bay recruiting office back to Kewaunee.
Then he joined the Navy. Seaman Amand Laurent took part
in the Siege of Casablanca. What did he think when he saw Bogart and McCall in
the movie of the same name?
By the time
the U.S. was in Korea, those serving in the Navy had a number of jobs besides
being aboard ships. Standout Algoma athlete Zug Zastrow was the Navy
quarterback who defeated the previously undefeated Army in the famous 1950
football game. The All-American Navy quarterback Zastrow even made the cover of
Time Magazine. Zastrow, a Korean and
Vietnam War veteran, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952. A year after the
big game, another Algoma athletic standout - Wayne Younk – came back to Algoma
with a Navy medical discharge. Hilary Frisque served as an aviation machinist’s
mate. Allen Albrecht served at the joint U.S.-Canadian weather station in the
Canadian arctic. Father E. Thomas Peters was an assistant pastor at Holy Rosary
in Kewaunee. Peters had served in the Navy during World War ll and was asked to
return as a Navy Chaplain in 1950. World War ll Navy vet Melvin Qualman ran for
2nd War Alderman in 1960. They all came back.
In the last 50 years, the Navy has been throughout the world. Is it a job, or is it an adventure? The young men and women
are certainly seeing the world and many see things they would rather not! At a
recent gathering of Tin Can Sailors in Warwick, Rhode Island, the vets spent a
day at the Newport War College, marveling over the new Navy, the education and
the training. According to an after-dinner address by its commander, the young
people are so much better prepared than were those at the event. Most of it
because of technology and the fingers that knew joysticks and Pac Man!
Eternal
Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave………
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Note: Oil paintings are courtesy of NL Johnson Art and
and used with permission. The poster is a copy of table
decorations won at Warwick.
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave………
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Note: Oil paintings are courtesy of NL Johnson Art and
and used with permission. The poster is a copy of table
decorations won at Warwick.
