UW student turns history paper about Wisconsin's MIA soldiers into a mission, and book

Keith Uhlig
Wausau Daily Herald
Lt. Michael Allard, shown in his flight uniform shortly before his death, went down with his plane during the Vietnam War in August 1967.

MADISON - A news story posted on Facebook jolted Erin Miller when she read it in 2014.

The story was about Staff Sgt. James Lee VanBendegom of Racine, who was last seen by fellow soldiers after he was wounded and captured by enemy forces in a 1967 battle in Vietnam. VanBendegom's remains were identified and recovered 47 years later. The news article focused on the delayed funeral for the 18-year-old soldier, and the emotional closure it gave his mother and siblings.

A comment on the Facebook post was what really hit Miller, who at the time was a 21-year-old history student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The person who posted the story, a close friend of Miller's family, wrote that she understood the emotion of VanBendegom's family, because her brother also was listed as MIA.

Miller had no idea her family friend had lost someone in Vietnam.

It's in Miller's nature to find things out. The post spurred her to do some online research about the missing soldiers, and she discovered a list of 37 men from Wisconsin who had been declared missing in action in Vietnam.

She didn't know it at the time, but that list would be the start of an intensive four-year quest to learn more about the lives of those men, work that would eventually end in the publication of a book, "Wisconsin's 37: The Lives of Those Missing in Action in the Vietnam War."

"When I found that list, I don't know why, I was really struck by it," said Miller, now 25. "And I realized that I didn't know too much about Vietnam. I was a little bit embarrassed."

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Erin Miller

Miller first wrote about the list of the 37 men as a paper for a history class she was taking from UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless. The more she learned about the men, the more she wanted to know.

Their stories beckoned her. And when she started to contact friends and relatives of some of the men on the list, Miller found those people eager to talk about them and the impact of their losses.

That's when the idea for the book started to form in Miller's mind. Sharpless helped guide her research and worked with her in editing the book.

When Miller approached him with the idea to contact family or friends of the MIA military members, "I told her, 'Give it shot, Erin. See if you can do it,'" Sharpless said. "I was suspicious that it would work out. But she just went out and did it. She put the extra mile on it."

It helped that in addition to Miller's "incredible discipline and devotion to work and serious research," Sharpless said, "she has a good personality. She was able to build an emotional bridge with those people in a way I've found so impressive. She was able to write very personal narratives."

Author Erin Miller communicated with hundreds of people to write profiles of 37 Wisconsin men who have been listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War.

Miller worked steadily on the book as she graduated from UW-Madison with her undergraduate degree, and then went on to continue with graduate studies in communication sciences and disorders. She graduated from the program a few weeks ago.

She tracked down people who knew the soldiers — often family members, friends, or fellow soldiers — through high schools, online phone directories and veterans organizations. She said as she got deeper into the project, the more honored she felt to tell the men's stories and be allowed into the lives of friends and families.

"One of the (missing soldiers) had a sister here (in Wisconsin) and a brother who lived in Alaska. The brother said he was visiting Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. I drove and met them at a campsite (where they were staying) and sat at a picnic table with them and talked," Miller said. "It still amazes me how receptive people were to it."

Miller began to feel connected to the men and obligated to them at the same time.

One of them was Michael Allard, who left Wisconsin for Vietnam after an all-American childhood in Wausau and a Naval ROTC career at Marquette University. He was on a bombing run in 1967 when his plane crashed to the ground. He was 26, married and a father of three.

Allard's remains were eventually found and identified through DNA matching. Allard was buried with military honors on March 19, 2001, in Arlington National Cemetery.

For Miller, the whole book comes down to a simple and powerful concept.

"They were here, and they mattered," she said. "That's the sum of it."

Where to buy the book

"Wisconsin's 37" can be purchased through the website of the book's publisher, McFarland & Company Inc.: mcfarlandbooks.com or through Amazon.com.

Royalties from book sales will be donated to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison and The Highground Veterans Memorial Park near Neillsville.

The men listed as MIA and profiled in "Wisconsin's 37": 

Michael Allard, 26, Wausau, Navy

Merlin Allen, 20, Bayfield, Marine Corps

William Arnold, 26, West Allis, Navy

Norman Billipp, 24, Madison/Milwaukee, Marine Corps

Thomas Blackman, 19, Racine, Marine Corps

Richard Bowers, 22, Lake Mills, Army

Robert Bush, 28, Racine, Air Force

Paul Derby, 25, Marshfield/Menominee, Marine Corps

Donald Downing, 33, Janesville, Air Force

Walter Draeger Jr., 31, Deerfield, Air Force

William Evans, 20, Milwaukee, Army

Charles Fellenz, 30, Marshfield, Air Force

Edwin Fickler, 25, Kewaskum, Marine Corps 

Richard Fischer, 20, Madison, Marine Corps

Paul Frazier, 19, Milwaukee, Army

Donald Gallagher, 29, Sheboygan Falls, Navy

Paul Gee, 24, Waukesha/Manitowish Falls, Marine Corps

William Gorsuch, 21, Cambria, Navy

John Hartzheim, 20, Appleton, Navy

Richard Hentz, 23, Oshkosh, Army

Raymond Heyne, 20, Bayfield, Marine Corps

Roy Huss, 24, Abbotsford, Navy

Randolph Johnson, 21, Milwaukee, Army

James Ketterer, 25, Milwaukee, Air Force

Roy Kubley, 28, Glidden, Air Force

James La Haye, 41, Stevens Point/Green Bay, Navy

David Leet, 25, Kenosha, Marine Corps

Todd Melton, 23, Milwaukee, Air Force

Harold Moe, 29, Eau Claire, Marine Corps

William Pierson, 21, Oshkosh, Army

Dale Richardson, 28, Cashton, Army

Peter Schmidt, 20, Milwaukee, Army

Duwayne Soulier, 20, Bayfield, Marine Corps

Albert Trudeau, 22, Milwaukee, Army

James Tycz, 22, Milwaukee, Marine Corps

James VanBendegom, 18, Kenosha, Army

Robert Wilke, 42, Milwaukee, Air Force