You're in the Navy Now

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.

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.

While the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was an attack on the Navy, Kewaunee County men were also serving there in other branches of the military. Algoma’s Louis Depas was serving at Pearl when it was attacked. Although his ship was hit and there were casualties, Depas survived only to die of a medical condition some years later. He was buried at Fort Bell, Bermuda and is now at rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Ray Gerhart was aboard the Nevada, getting ready to shave when the surprise attack came.

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?

Joseph Muhofski of Kewaunee died in the attack at Pearl Harbor. Ralph Lietz was serving with Coast Guard when he was killed in the Atlantic in June 1943. Perry Drossart was killed in the sinking of the Quincy in September 1942. Levi Frisque was supposed to be on the Quincy but got sick and didn’t leave the States when the ship did. Casco seniors Lloyd Drossart and Roland Frisque went into the Navy in February 1943, two years after their brothers enlisted.

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 2^nd War Alderman in 1960. They all came back.

The Navy took men from all over Kewaunee County, during war time and peace time. During the peace time in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, area men were serving in the 7^th Fleet, keeping the two Chinas apart. The Navy was there during the Cuban missile crisis, and there to pick up Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard in the mid-1960s. During the late '60s, the Parkos brothers - Gene, Joe and Jerry - were serving at the same time.

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.