INTRODUCTION
In my first book The Hero Next Door®, I told the stories of 14 men who fought in Europe's frozen forests, across Pacific Ocean islands, and onto bloody beaches. I believed that first book depicted the wide breadth of experiences and great distances covered in America's battle to save the world from 1941-45. However, I also knew even before I first put pen to paper that one book could not include all the gallant efforts of all the Americans who fought that battle, at home and overseas. There are so many more stories to tellstories the next generation needs to hear before they are wiped from the pages of our collective memories.
When that first book went to press, I already had the names of many veterans whose stories deserved to be told. In the year since that publication, many more stories have come forward. Nearly all of them were, once again, recommended to me not by the Wisconsinite who lived them but by his or her family, friends and neighbors because the veteran exemplifies the spirit of the Hero Next Door men and women who humbly served their country well in war and peace.
The Hero Next Door® Returns is a collection of 14 more of those stories, told by this small sampling of the scared but determined young Americans fighting for their livesand buddieswhile fighting for their country, in a place so far from home that mere mention of it hurt. While this next collection of stories began as a way to capture some of the experiences missing from the first book, the veterans represented in the Hero Next Door Returns once again paint a broad brush stroke across World War II's canvas of experience.
Their stories do not depict the traditional history book accounts of war, howeverthese are not the stories of generals and battle plans. Nor do their stories dare to represent the stories of the 300,000 Wisconsinites who served in World War II.
Their stories do, however, share the individual acts of bravery and sacrifice, borne by our brothers, sisters, uncles, grandfathers and neighborsour Heroes Next Doorthat combined to save the world.
Each man or woman who served this country was an important cog in the massive war machine that won World War II. Though each veteran I've spoken too insists they were "only doing their job," the job they were doing was securing freedom for America and the world. That was no small task, and no one American's part of that accomplishment deserves anything less than our deepest gratitude.
The veterans I've come to know certainly have my deepest gratitude. And, I am especially honored to have come to know the men and women featured in this second book in the Hero Next Door series.
These stories are told from what each recalls of the small part they played in the most far-reaching war in American history. Nearly 60 years have passed since most of them were "over there." Some memories are foggy; others are too painful to remember. The veterans in this book each chose which of their tales of war to tell, what pictures to show and how much to tell. In most cases, the recollections they offer here are stories they've seldom told before. These are the stories they largely tucked away in their memories in order to get on with the second chance of life they were granted by returning home alive from war. They started families and businesses and gave their time to help their neighbors when they could.
After hearing from all of you at book signings in the last year, I know for certain that most of us sons, and granddaughters, and neighbors do not really know of the sacrifices the man or woman living in our family or down our street made a half a century ago. We do not know the Hero Next Door.
Let me introduce you to some of them.
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