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Wisconsin’s Irma response scaled back

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Most of the Wisconsin National Guard soldiers that were supposed to help with Hurricane Irma are no longer going.

Captain Joe Trovato, a spokesman for the Guard, said Florida officials determined they didn’t need as many people.

More than 2,500 troops from around the state were activated. Trovato said they sent about 650 of them on Sunday and they’ll be staying. He says they’re expected to help shuttle supplies and provide security. He said the rest are either coming back or they never left.

A team of Wisconsin first responders is also heading home from Florida. The state’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force was asked to help with searches in the Jacksonville area — but the mission was called off when Hurricane Irma did not hit the region as hard as expected. The team is made up of first responders and search dog handlers from the Antigo, Appleton, Beloit, Chippewa Falls, Green Bay, Janesville, La Crosse, and Oshkosh fire departments.

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Wisconsin National Guard members to help with Irma recovery

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More than 2,500 members of the Wisconsin National Guard will help with the massive recovery efforts in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

The Wisconsin Guard’s mission is expected to include rescuing people who were trapped by rising floodwaters, preventing more injuries and protecting property left vulnerable by residents who fled the approaching storm. Governor Scott Walker said those troops will “stand ready to help our friends in Florida.”

Soldiers being deployed from the state include the entire 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 1157th Transportation Company, members of the 112th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. The Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs says other Wisconsin Army and Air National Guard elements have also been called to report for duty and begin traveling to Florida.

Irma has been one of the strongest Atlantic Ocean storms ever recorded. The hurricane made landfall over the weekend and left behind a path of property damage and flooding as it moved up through the state. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm and moved into Georgia.

Wisconsin National Guard deployed to Florida

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More than 2,500 Wisconsin National Guard troops will be heading to Florida to help in the response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Irma.

Governor Scott Walker issued Executive Order 254 September 8, which authorized Wisconsin’s adjutant general to call Wisconsin National Guard troops to state active duty to assist Florida. Their mission set will be determined when they arrive in Florida, but may include rescuing people trapped by floodwaters, preventing injuries and protecting property.

The entire 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 1157th Transportation Company, members of the 112th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment and other Wisconsin Army and Air National Guard elements were called to state active duty and are reporting for duty and beginning to travel to Florida.

“Mobilizing in times of state and federal emergency is at the very core of who we are as the National Guard. Not only are we the primary combat reserve of our nation’s Army and Air Force, we are also the nation’s first military responder in times of emergency,” Major General Don Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, said.

“Wisconsin is ready to assist in any way necessary, and National Guardsmen from the Badger State will remain in the region as long as needed,” Dunbar added.

The troops will remain in the region as long as they are needed to assist civil authorities.

Confederate memorials removed from Madison cemetery

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PHOTO: Chris Schmidt

A plaque and stone honoring Confederate war dead are now gone, from a Madison cemetery. The removal was announced by Madison Mayor Paul Soglin in a statement from his office.

The removal of City-owned monuments to confederate soldiers in Forest Hill Cemetery has minimal or no disruption to the cemetery itself. There is no disrespect to the dead with the removal of the plaque and stone. The Civil War was an act of insurrection and treason and a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery. The monuments in question were connected to that action and we do not need them on City property.

They were put up in 1981, the gift of a Mr. & Mrs. William Huggins. Former Madison Alder Chris Schmidt was at Forest Hill Cemetery on Thursday. “It was meant to memorialize the Confederate soldiers buried here. However the language used was similar to . . language used in the ‘Lost Cause’ monuments that are spread throughout the country, particularly in the South. The Lost Cause was a movement to sanitize the history of the Confederacy and the Civil War.

The men were captured in action on the Mississippi River in 1862 and imprisoned at Camp Randall, where they died. The plot within the city-owned cemetery is the northernmost spot in the U.S. where the remains of Confederate soldiers are interred. Schmidt notes who soldiers served the Union are buried nearby. “That’s V.A. property. They have a historical marker up there which explains what’s going on, that is much more neutral langauge than anything you say down here.”

In his statement, Soglin said that a larger monument at the site, which has received less attention, will also be removed. The action in Madison is similar to what’s already occurred in some other U.S. cities, and is being considered by others.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to deride the removals. “Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!” Trump tweeted. “Also the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”

The Forest Hill memorials were not Madison’s only monuments, to the Civil War, but those remaining honor those who served the Union. They include a large stature on the Capitol grounds of Colonel Hans Christian Heg, a Norwegian immigrant who was killed in 1863, as well as smaller statues of a Union soldier and veteran, on the grounds of Camp Randall.

Pocan derides Trump’s tweets on transgender service ban

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ban transgender people from the U.S. military. It’s a reversal of policy established under former President Barack Obama, and Congressman Mark Pocan doubts that it’s about the costs of accommodating transgender service members.

“This is not a financial issue, this is more about appeasing a part of his base, and I think it’s dishonorable to all service members when you dishonor any,” the 2nd District Democrat said, arguing that the move is more likely meant to appease the president’s core supporters.

The change, announced on Trump’s Twitter account, leaves the status of several thousand active duty and reserve transgender service members unclear. “The bottom line is we’re talking about thousands of people who currently serve the country, who are now being dishonored by the president’s tweeting” Pocan said. “Someone who’s dodged the draft, I think 5 times, is trying to give advice to people who are defending our country.”

CNN reported on Thursday that the Joint Chiefs of were not aware that President Trump planned to tweet a ban on transgender service members.

EAA honoring Doolittle Raiders

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More than a dozen B-25 Mitchell bombers from the World War II era are in Oshkosh for Wednesday’s 75th anniversary celebration of the Doolittle Raid.

About 80 pilots and crew members volunteered for the mission to attack military targets in Japan, in April of 1942.

Bill Rozek of Delaware helps with one of the B-25 aircraft that’s on display at EAA AirVenture this week. He says the Doolittle Raiders gave the military a big morale boost. He says it proved that the Japanese weren’t untouchable.

Rozek says the pilots bailed from their planes in China, and Chinese citizens hid them from the Japanese. The only surviving member of the Raiders is 101-year-old Dick Cole. He’ll be at AirVenture today.

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Ryan says U.S. missile strike in Syria ‘Appropriate And Just’

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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville says it was “appropriate and just” to conduct a missile attack on an airbase in Syria Thursday night.

President Donald Trump said he ordered the strike in response to Syria’s chemical weapons attack on its own people Tuesday — in which 86 people including 27 children, were killed. Media reports say the missile strike resulted in deaths, but it was not known how many.

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said the U.S. strike was meant to send a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The speaker tweeted “the Assad regime can no longer count on American inaction as it carries out atrocities against the Syrian people.”

U.S Senator Tammy Baldwin also responded to the strike, saying in a statement that the United States has taken a “measured response” to a reprehensible attack on the Syrian people. However, the Democrat said she is concerned by what she described as a the  lack of a clear and comprehensive strategy for Syria and the region. “I believe that the Administration must work with Congress as an equal partner regarding any additional military action and communicate its long-range goals and plans to the American people,” she said.

Veterans Museum preserves Wisconsin World War I stories

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The United States entered World War I 100 years ago, on April 3, 2017. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum preserves the stories of Wisconsin’s role in World War I. The bulk of Wisconsin soldiers to see combat on the battlefields of northern France were members of the famed “Red Arrow” 32nd Division, composed mainly of National Guardsmen from Wisconsin and Michigan, which took part in three major offensives against the Germans.

Rougly 120,000 Wisconsin residents ended up serving in the war, and over 2,000 died while in service. The war, which began in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918, claimed the lives of over nine million military personell and seven million civlians.

State veterans home fails to meet three federal standards

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More problems have been uncovered at the state veterans’ nursing home at King in Waupaca County. A VA inspection in January, requested by U.S. Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin, found that the home did not meet three of 158 federal standards — including the failure to protect residents from abuses, after one resident fell from a bed and fractured a skull.

According to the Madison Capital Times, the VA also found that the home did not update the resident’s plan for care after the fall — and it did not reveal safety inspections for elevators. Baldwin got involved after King was given federal citations last December.

Army vet from Ripon will lead state veterans agency

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(Photo: Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs)

Governor Walker has selected Daniel Zimmerman of Ripon to lead the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.

The governor ordered Zimmerman, a retired lieutenant colonel, and military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, to immediately review the operations of the state’s veterans homes.

Zimmerman takes over for longtime secretary John Scocos, who resigned last November amid accusations of mismanagement at the veterans home in King.

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