A video interview with Brigadier General Robert Andrew Cocroft

Written by Oral Historian Luke D. Sprague Robert A. Cocroft graduated from North Division High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1965. While attending and playing football at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the United States Army drafted him on October 24, 1966. At Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Cocroft passed the qualification tests

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Wisconsin’s veterans remember 9/11

Written by Luke D. Sprague, Oral Historian Those of us who are old enough remember where we were on the morning of September 11, 2001, when we learnt of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and in the sky over Pennsylvania. That historical moment would

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A Lesson in Resiliency From the Bataan Death March

At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. A Philippine insurrection against the United States began almost immediately and ended in 1902 with the United States controlling the territory until the Japanese invasion in December of 1941. Choosing deployment to the

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Gather Stories of Your Family’s Veterans with Research Resources from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum

Genealogy, or learning about one’s ancestors, has been growing in popularity lately with the addition of so many resources to the internet. It has never been easier to search census records, ship passenger lists, or burial records from the comfort of your own home. And with so many people staying

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Part I: Okinawa: Genesis of a Battle

In 1945, 75 years ago, World War II in the Pacific ended with the Battle of Okinawa and the atomic bombing of Japan. These important events, in which Wisconsin service members did their full duty, still impact the world today.   From April until August 2020, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum staff

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“These Numbers All Mean Something”

By Russell Horton, Reference & Outreach Archivist  “I’ve got documents that I brought out of Korea… just pieces of paper with numbers on them. They are very old. These numbers all mean something.”                                   

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A Veteran’s First Vehicle: Incorporating the Automobile into the Army during WWI

By Bobby Brito, Oral History Intern The Great War inaugurated the twentieth century, while the proliferation of the internet can be thought of as one of the events that bookended the twentieth century. Conventional conversations would not typically involve both events in relation with each other. However, through my work

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“Walking Point with London” by Kylee Sekosy

Just as servicemen and women often befriend one another, war dogs and their handlers often share a deep bond from their experiences in combat. James Hooker, a Wisconsin veteran of the United States Marine Corps, spent three full tours of service in Vietnam. A young man “tired of school” and

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In Recognition of Aviation Month – The Story of Robert Balliet

By Jeff Javid, Wisconsin Veterans Museum Archives Assistant Robert Balliet of Appleton, Wisconsin served with the 776th Squadron, 464th Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force, United States Army Air Force in the European theatre during World War II. An employee of Wisconsin Bell Telephone Company, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in

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Pearl Harbor Remembered through Oral Histories

In this 14 minute clip, Thomas Butler, a quartermaster in the Navy, recounts his experience aboard the USS Tennessee on December 7, 1941. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Collection contains more than 15 interviews with veterans who were stationed at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day. It also includes

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