THE WALL OF FACES

Gus is buried at the Nativity of Our Lord Parish Cemetery on Lincoln St. Gus is located in the northeast corner, large section, 3rd row in from the east and 3rd column down from the north.

If I should die, and leave you here awhile, be not like others, sore undone, who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep...for MY sake, turn again to life, and smile...Nerving thy heart, and trembling hand to do something to comfort other hearts than thine...Complete these dear, unfinished tasks of mine...and I, perchnace, may therein comfort you.

Gustave is buried at St Joseph's Cemetery in Rhinelander, Wis.

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

Gustave was known as "Buddy" to his family and close friends. He was the first from Rhinelander to graduate from the Wisconsin Military Acadamy. He was awarded a Bronze Star. He died in a helicopter crash on August 1, 1967. He had already completed his assigned mission on the day he died. He had volunteered to substitute for another who was scheduled a duty mission later that day. His death directly resulted from his voluntary assumption of another's duty assignment. His action shows his own generosity for others. Had he not so generously volunteered his services for another fellow soldier, he might be alive today.
He was a generous man who left behind two daughters and a son he never saw. He is a hero to those of us who knew him.