• LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Daughter follows father’s footsteps into Minnesota National Guard
• PEOPLE MUST CONTINUE TO THANK AND SUPPORT OUR VETERANS: Gail Smith grew up in a patriotic family and served with the Army Nurse Corps.
• WORLD WAR II VETS TAKE TO THE SKIES
• A CENTURY OF HEROISM: : Walt Straka was an American war hero.
• ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Local photo submissions of Brainerd lakes area veterans — past and present.
ON THE COVER: Walt Straka laughs in 2017 at the Brainerd National Guard Armory open house. Straka was an American war hero born in 1919, came of age during the Great Depression, survived pitched battles and years as a prisoner of war. Nearly 80 years after his ordeal, at the golden age of 101, he died at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, July 4, 2021. With his death, Minnesota bid farewell to its last survivor of the Bataan Death March, when Japanese soldiers forced American prisoners of war on a brutal 60-mile trek through the Philippines that claimed tens of thousands of lives. We salute you
