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• Prescott Historical Society to honor local military veterans Sunday

By Jason Schulte, RiverTown Staff

PRESCOTT - For the last six weeks, guests of the Prescott Historical Society (PHS) have seen a fresh and unique perspective to the Iraq War.

The PHS has been running an exhibit called "Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard Unit," in which three members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 2-127th Infantry Battalion chronicled their deployment in Iraq from 2004-2005. I

n conjunction with the exhibit, the PHS is inviting all area military personnel and families who have served to a reception from 1-4 p.m. this Sunday at the Historical Society, located at Prescott's Welcome and Heritage Center (by the bell tower) at the Hwy. 10 bridge.

The exhibit is a spin-off of the book of the same title written by Cpt. Benjamin Buchholz, with photos from Lt. Nathan Olson and Staff Sgt. Joseph Streeter.

"It's a series of photographs that are very beautiful," PHS Secretary Jenny Taevs said.

Buchholz said the battalion was mainly assigned convoy escort duty, which was about 90 percent of their missions. It meant they met up with about 30 civilian-type semis at the border of Kuwait and Iraq and, with the battalion's three HUMVEEs, provided armed escort throughout all of Iraq.

"It also meant that we were the targets for most of the roadside bombs," Buchholz said via e-mail. " A lot of our guys grew up very quickly and have come back into their Wisconsin communities with tremendous levels of experience and competence."

Streeter said the book idea came from Buchholz, who had the goal of showing how soldiers lived and what they did in their free time.

Buchholz then asked Streeter if he was willing to add his photos to the project as well. Olson came on later to the project.

"Being a photographer, I wanted to make sure that I captured where we were and what we were doing," Streeter said via e-mail. "I didn't even know about (Ben's) idea until I asked him about a separate mission to take photos of the local area and the people that lived there."

The two explained how they're able to balance working on their project along with their assignment in Iraq. "Military time means a lot of 'hurry up and wait'," Buchholz said.

"One of the big differences between our generation of soldiers and past generations is that we are technologically enabled over there."

So with internet, laptops, iPODs, cell phones, at their disposal, Buchholz spent most of his down time interviewing other soldiers and writing.

Streeter would take his camera along on missions and then spend his personal time working on them.

"I would ride in the truck with my camera in my lap," he said. "Being a Squad Leader definitely came first, so there were times when the camera was literally thrown aside. That camera is pretty beat up now, but it never missed a frame."

If unable to attend the reception, the exhibit is open the hours of the Welcome and Heritage Center, which are Tuesdays-Fridays 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Get more on this story in this week's print edition of the Pierce County Herald.

Contact Jason Schulte at jschulte@rivertowns.net or 715.273.4334.