Lost doughboys: On a mission to preserve

The Doughboy statue on Memorial Drive in Appleton is being recast. The new version will be installed on Monday and will be dedicated on Nov. 11, Veterans Day. (PHOTO: USA T)ODAY NETWORK: Wisconsin

APPLETON - One hundred years ago on Saturday, a young Navy sailor, and one of only 12 on the entire ship, was manning his impromptu artillery post on the American steamship the Aztec when it was struck by a German U-Boat torpedo off the coast of France.

Jonathan Eopolucci was lowering the second lifeboat when it was swamped and he was overcome by the sinking ship's debris and drowned. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Eopolucci was the first American solider to die in the Great War. Five days later, on April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson would officially declare U.S. entry into World War I.

In the span of just a year and eight months, more than 2 million Americans would serve in the European theatre, over a million of them on the front lines. In the end, 116,708 Americans would die in combat or from sickness, and more than 200,000 would return home wounded. It is no small task to remember those lost to the war and next to impossible to recount every story of individual sacrifice, though each of the lost doughboys has an untold story to tell.

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This memorial, which captures a young man on the verge of making the ultimate sacrifice among the blasted tree stumps and barbed wire of No Man’s Land, memorializes WWI doughboys, but it also serves to remind us of the never-ending wake of war that laps our own shores long after guns go silent. Upon its dedication, we committed to being vigilant — to preserve this monument to our own brave and honorable young heroes, like;

Frank Buckle, the last WWI doughboy, who, like Harvey Pierre, was eager to join the ranks but was underage and underweight and initially turned down by many branches until the Army took him in August 1917. Also just 16, he volunteered to become an ambulance driver, hearing that it was the quickest path to service in France. Frank survived the Great War, and after the Armistice in 1918, escorted prisoners of war back to Germany. Decades later, while working for a marine manufacturing company in Manila, Frank was pulled back into “the fog” when he was captured by the Japanese and interred in the Los Baños prison camp. Malnourished and weakened over the eight-year interment, he still managed to lead his fellow prisoners in daily calisthenics and was eventually freed by allied forces. Frank passed away a few years ago, adding an even greater need to keep the doughboy memory alive.

It is a challenge to ask these same organizations to divert precious resources for the restoration of monuments or the replacement of a memorial that has been restored numerous times. It is about as inglorious a task as one can imagine, but it is a need too long ignored.

And so it is with a profound sense of gratitude that we, as a community and so many veterans organizations stretched thin, recognize and express our heartfelt thanks to Appleton Parks and Recreation Director Dean Gazza’s leadership and the foresight of the Parks and Recreation Committee and Common Council to approve a capital budget request in 2015 to fund the complete restorations of all of our ailing war memorials and monuments.

Gazza not only rose to the occasion but by taking ownership of and embracing the desire to see full restorations of Appleton’s memorials over the next few years, single-handedly turned a new page in Appleton history. I speak for every veteran and community member when I say, “We salute you!”

This ongoing capital improvement has already seen the purchase of the missing USS Maine Memorial plaque and two 12-lb Napoleon replacement cannons for the Spanish-American War memorial. And this year’s line item was updated to include funding for a new solid bronze doughboy to be cast by a regional foundry and permanently make whole our ailing memorial.

To that end, American Legion Johnson-Blessman Post 38 recently passed a resolution of endorsement, supporting the replacement of the doughboy memorial and the city’s desire to gift the original to the History Museum at the Castle, which intends to include it as a centerpiece of a forthcoming permanent war history exhibit they are currently fundraising for.

At Sculpture Valley, we are equally excited about the possibility of recovering some of the original Monument Square when the Appleton YMCA parking ramp comes down and the area is redesigned with similar recommendations of the 2016 Comprehensive Downtown Plan in mind.

We are working with the Appleton chapter of the Desert Veterans of Wisconsin to begin the discussion about a new memorial to honor those lost in the most recent Middle East conflicts, to be situated in the heart of that space.

Though there will be significant interest in developing mixed used and parking opportunity on that site, we are confident that we can work to balance the city’s needs with the desire by many veterans organizations to honor their great sacrifice by creating a true Soldier’s Square — a Monument Plaza where every veteran from every branch of service from every conflict can be finally and justly represented in the heart of our downtown. In this way we will answer the call to never forget all of our veterans, including all the lost doughboys like;

William Eopolucci, who was drafted, and like his brother Jonathan, ended up in the European theater, in Argonne, France. As a gunner with the 312th Machine Gun Battalion, William was part of a contingent sent to support an infantry position after a lackluster artillery assault. His unit engaged a German machine gun nest and came under significant enemy fire. PFC Eopolucci was wounded during the assault and later died at a first aid station. The brothers were once memorialized along with 530 of their comrades on small, stubby concrete markers along 16th Street NW, in Washington D.C., barely visible when the grass grew tall. Today, less than 40 remain and most of those are illegible.

Appleton will remember that today, as we enter a year of reflection on WWI, that we will no longer be content to forget. Together, we have taken this monumental leap forward, committed to raising our memorials up and once again restoring their honor, preserving their glory for another 100 years and beyond.

Of this I could not be more proud.

Alex Schultz is a veteran of the Persian Gulf war and acting president of Sculpture Valley, a nonprofit arts advocacy organization in the Fox Cities. Sources for soldier stories include Washington Post, Washington Times, New York Times and Outagamie County Veterans Memorial.