Behind every American Legion Post is a story. The story of Seymour American Legion Post 106 begins in 1919. Each American Legion post has a namesake, and behind that namesake was an individual who made the ultimate sacrifice. Our Post has two namesakes one born in the town of Seymour on March 16, 1888. Robert Krause lived with his parents up to September 18, 1917 when he answered the call of his country. His family received the sad news Tuesday November 26, 1918 that their son Robert had died of wounds somewhere in the Argonne in France on October 20, 1918. When the Post chartered in 1919 they chose to be the Krause Post 106.
Then when WW II came along and several sons from the Seymour area lost their lives during that war another namesake would be added to the Post’s name. That name was that of Kenneth A. Kraft who graduated from Seymour High School in 1942. He enlisted in the Marines in November of 1942. After basic training he found himself in combat very quickly at Vella La Vella and Bouganville where he was wounded on January 1, 1944. He returned to duty shortly after that and gave his life for his country on February 22, 1945 on Iwo Jima.
Then Seymour lost another of its sons during the Vietnam War. Tom Richard Mueller a graduate of Seymour High School in 1965. Tom Mueller’s parents were Elmer and Viola Mueller who farmed on CTH X in the town of Cicero. His family included brothers Allen (Butch), Dan, Jay and twin brother Jerry and a sister Bonnie, In November of 1967, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and went to boot camp. He came home on leave for a couple weeks then on April 23, 1968, his family watched him board a plane at Austin Straubel Airport and Tom Mueller was off to war. In his first letter home from Vietnam he wrote, “I see no signs of war, we go on patrol and have seen nothing”. However, things changed quickly and in another letter he wrote about a time when they were being ambushed, “Everybody was shooting and running. I froze, then started firing my machine gun , When it was over a man was shaking my hand saying you are going to get a medal for this! In reality, I was just too scared to run”.
On February 1, 1969 Tom was a squad leader on a recon operation six miles west of Ben Cat, At 4:40 in the afternoon, his company was attacked by a large, well trained enemy. The used rocket-propelled grenades, small arms, and automatic weapons against a much smaller U.S. Army unit. When one of his friends was lying injured in enemy territory he did not hesitate to volunteer and try to evacuate his friend. While providing cover by rushing the enemy position and attacking with his machine gun, other members of the squad were able to rescue the wounded man. During his heroic effort, Sgt. Tom Mueller died! An enemy bullet took his life on the jungle floor of Vietnam.
Our Post members voted on January 23, 2017 to change its name to include Tom Richard Mueller as a namesake and therefore will be known as; Krause-Kraft-Mueller Post 106 American Legion of Seymour, Wisconsin. A rededication ceremony will take place on May 29, 2017 with family members as guests.
Russ Hanseter PNVC
