Very pleasant presentation at center of cemetery All Veterans Memorial
Saint Mary's Cemetery
Westphalia, Clinton County
"Dedicated to those men and women of this community who server our country in times of peace and war, and especially to those who gave their lives in that service. "
"In Memory of
St. MARYS WESTPHALIA
Veterans
Who served the country that we may live in peace"
This is a very nicely done flag plaza, complete with individual marble tiles. At least two of the tiles honor Civil War veterans, one of them being a POW at Andersonville Prison who died shortly after the end of the Civil War. I did some research on Mathias Weber and Company D, 13th Infantry. The fact that the tile does not give any state or regimental data makes it nearly impossible to find out anything significant.
I was able to locate several references to the loss of Spc5 Robert Thelen, of nearby Fowler. He was just 20 years old and was part of an elite radio intelligence unit. Thelen and three others of his unit died from blast injuries on February 21, 1971 in Binh Dinh province VietNam. He is buried here in St Marys along with so many others of our fallen. Sgt Martin Rademacher was part of the 454th Bomb Group and died on a mission in Hungary during World War II. Ron Spitzley was a bank teller here in town before his war started - he died in France on New Year's Eve, 1944. Teddy Schafer was a 'tanker' with the 3rd Armored Division and died six month earlier near the beaches at Normandy.
I visited this cemetery on a beautiful day in early spring and the Church Sexton was mowing the grass for the first time of the season. He graciously stopped as I stood in the plaza area, so as not to interrupt me. When it became obvious that he wasn't disturbing someone in personal revere he approached and asked if he could direct me to any particular gravesite. We chatted about the memorial and I learned the community is very proud of its effort to recognize our soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Bravo Zulu, Westphalia!
Again, there are six service seals on the marker; but the Merchant Marine is not one of them, the sixth seal is that of the US National Guard.
Service seals include National Guard and Reserves, but not Merchant Marine
