Anyone who has visited the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison or their website (museum.dva.state.wi.us) knows they have a wealth of information available concerning Wisconsin veterans. You will find information such as Wisconsin’s contributions to military conflicts back to the Civil War and information regarding veterans’ organizations. You will also find a very interesting date base dealing with veterans’ memorial and monuments.
The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs is charged with keeping an index of memorials and monuments honoring Wisconsin military units and veterans. The museum initiated a project back in 1990 to update its index and obtain as much information as possible about these monuments and memorials. Many CVSOs provided information on memorials within Wisconsin counties. In the past few years many photos and written descriptions have been placed on the website.
There are a couple things veterans can do to make this project more complete and successful. First of all, if your post or community has an existing monument, you can file a report with the museum. If the post is planning a memorial you can look at a wide variety of styles and displays on the website. Once your memorial is in place you can provide photos, descriptions, invitations and programs to the museum for inclusion in their files.
second way of helping this project would be to look for memorials while you are on vacation or traveling. Many of you visit National Parks and Battlefields as well as military installations outside of Wisconsin. Take a little time to look around and see if Wisconsin or its veterans are mentioned on any plaque, statue or building.
Reporting forms may be obtained from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison or your County Veterans Service Officer.
For more information regarding loan programs contact your local County Veterans Service Officer. You can locate your CVSO under the county government listings of your phone directory or on line at www.wicvso.org.
