Abbotsford veteran receives Quilt of Valor

By Kevin O’Brien

Del Vesely received an early Christmas gift last week when two ladies showed up at his house in Abbotsford to present him with a Quilt of Valor for his years of overseas military service almost 70 years ago.

With his daughter Monica Vesely at his side and another daughter, Krista Keech, heading over during her lunch break, Del smiled as Marla Berg and Marsha Otto of Marathon City draped him in a handmade quilt adorned with red-white-and-blue stars. (Del also has a son, Blaine, who lives in Ohio).

Raised in the Milan area, Del Vesely graduated from Abbotsford High School in 1955 and soon after joined the U.S. Army, following the lead of two uncles who had served in World War II. He also remembers hearing stories from his teachers whose husbands served in the Korean War, which ended just a couple of years before he enlisted.

“So, it was just the thing to do, I guess,” he said about enlisting.

Before being shipped across the Atlantic, Del spent the first of his three years in the service at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

Del was fortunate to be deployed to France about a decade after Allied Forces liberated the country from the Nazis. When he arrived, Europe was in a state of relative peace.

“I was there at a good time,” he said. “We were deeply loved yet from the Second World War. It’s changed now.”

On the day he left, though, he remembers French authorities riding around Paris with machine guns on their backs in response to an ongoing revolution in Algeria, a French colony that eventually won its independence in 1962.

Del served as a division clerk in the U.S. Transportation Corps, which oversees the movement of equipment, cargo and personnel.

When asked about his first impressions of France, Del said he “loved it.” He said it reminded him a lot of his home back in rural Wisconsin, where life was simple, but he also had to get used to local customs.

“When you we’re walking down the streets and you heard a window open up above, you’d better start ducking, because whatever was left over from the night before was going out the window,” he said, laughing.

Del fondly remembers one trip to the Spanish island of Malorca, when an older woman saw the American GIs and came running out with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine.

“People were great,” he said. The only hostile action he witnessed was a massive brawl, which was not something he would get involved in as a member of American forces helping rebuild the country.

“We saw a huge street fight; there had to be 200 people out there on the streets,” he said. “This little old lady came over by us and said ‘Get out of here. Don’t be out here or you’re going to get hurt.’ So, we took off and got the heck out of there.”

Monica said one of her favorite stories from her dad involves him trying unsuccessfully to navigate a large roundabout in Paris. He admits to looping around it 11 times.

“A cop had to stop traffic so that he could get out of there,” she said, laughing.

Though he really enjoyed his time in Europe, which included a trip to the World’s Fair in Brussels, Del said he was happy to get back home to Wisconsin at the end of his tour of duty. Upon his return, he briefly worked at All-Metal Stamping in Abbotsford before successfully applying for the job of postmaster in Milan, a position he held for 28 years before transferring to the post office in Unity and eventually retiring. He is a longtime member of the Athens VFW.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation, a nonprofit group of quilters from across the United States, has a mission to cover service members and veterans touched by wars with quilts in hopes of offering them comfort and healing. Started in 2003, the group has awarded over 369,797 quilts.

Monica Vesely, who also served as postmaster, said she first found out about Quilts of Valor when she saw them being delivered through the mail. Marie Wilson, coordinator of the Southeast Minnesota Quilters Group, passed Del’s name along to the group in Marathon.

“I said ‘Well, my dad’s a veteran,” she said. “I think it would kind of cool if he could get a quilt.”

HOME OF THE BRAVE - Army veteran Del Vesely stands in front of a patriotic gift given to him by Quilts of Valor, which makes handmade quilts for veterans. The quilt was presented to Vesely last week at his home in Abbotsford. The inset photo shows Vesely as a young man in uniform. STAFF PHOTOS/KEVIN O’BRIEN