All too often, combat veterans face two wars: the one they’re deployed to and the internal struggles they face back home (for those fortunate enough to return). In October 1930, a casualty of that second war was buried in Wausau’s Pine Grove Cemetery under a headstone that simply reads “The Unknown Soldier.”
All that we know about the deceased is that he was a World War I veteran who had fallen on hard times and found it difficult to re-adjust to home life after the horrific war killed between 15 million and 22 million people worldwide, including 117,466 American service members. To date, no relatives have been identified, but that may change in the coming years, as his remains were exhumed last year and efforts are underway to identify the soldier and bring closure to any potential family members.
While the burial of the unknown soldier made headlines in the 1930s, memory of one of Wisconsin’s few unknown soldier memorials had dimmed from the public consciousness until a local amateur historian looked into the case six years ago. Carol Berens, chaplain of the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, became aware of the memorial and started looking through local news archives.
“She kept digging into finding who it was or how it happened,” said Melinda Bartell, a fellow DAR member. “She found that the first story ran in the newspaper in September of 1930. And it told about how a passing motorist found a deceased man while driving on old Highway 51 near Rothschild.”
There was no identifying information on the body, but a note in his pocket indicated he was a World War I veteran who served in Europe a decade earlier and was now down on his luck.
“He struggled to find work,” Bartell explained. “Being too proud to beg or steal for food or money and not wanting to go to jail, he took his own life.”
In his note, the soldier requested that his friends not be told about his death and indicated he would rather have been killed in the war.
“Part of the note he left behind said, ‘It would have been far better to have stopped a bullet in France and receive an honorable burial as a soldier of War than to find final rest in a pauper’s grave. I am too proud to beg and haven’t the soul to steal,’” Bartell said. “He was well dressed and had the initials P.R. tattooed upon one arm.”
In October 1930, VFW Post No. 388 and the American Legion Post 10 gave the veteran a proper burial in the southeast area (“Potter’s Field”) of Pine Grove Cemetery. The headstone reads “The Unknown Soldier buried by Post 388 VFW and Post Number 10 American Legion.”
In 2021, Berens had a difficult time finding the grave, which is in a far corner of the cemetery. After cleaning up the worn headstone, she felt there was still more the community could do to honor the unknown soldier.
“The DAR is quite big on historic preservation and remembering the past,” Bartell said. “So to have a veteran have such a sad life and death, we thought he should be honored in some form.”
Around Memorial Day in 2022, the DAR held their first graveside ceremony honoring the unknown soldier. The solemn ceremony has grown over the years, with participation from the American Legion Post 10 Color Guard, thoughtful readings and patriotic music.
“The American Legion plays ‘Taps’ to end the ceremony, it’s really a beautiful thing,” Bartell said. “We just think that every soldier that fights for our freedom in our country should be honored ... but no one goes to the unknown soldier’s grave because nobody knows him, so we thought that he should know that we appreciate what he did.”
Unknown soldier grave sites are relatively rare in Wisconsin. Fort Winnebago Cemetery in Portage has a granite boulder monument dedicated to the memory of the unknown dead, Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee has a section officially designated for unidentified or unknown deceased veterans, and at Fort Crawford Military Cemetery in Prairie du Chien, 46 of the 64 interments are marked “unknown.”
The fifth annual ceremony at Pine Grove’s unknown soldier grave was on Wednesday, May 20. Wausau’s inaugural Poet Laureate, Dawn Anderson, wrote a poem for the soldier that was read at the ceremony. That poem can be found on page 19 of this edition.
This year, however, the unknown soldier’s remains were not at the grave site. The remains were exhumed in June 2025 as part of the Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project (MIA-RIP) at UW-Madison.
According to the Marathon County Medical Examiner’s Office, which helped exhume the grave and currently has custody of the remains, personnel at the MIA Recovery and Identification Project recently finished extracting DNA from the remains. That DNA information was handed over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which will try to identify the soldier and any potential living relatives.
“It’s a very long, slow process and there’s obviously other cases that probably get priority, like active investigations,” said Jessica Blahnik, director of operations at the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The mission of the MIA-RIP is to recover missing U.S. military personnel from past global conflicts and educate communities on the importance of past national service and help bring closure to the families of the missing.
The story of Wausau’s unknown soldier highlights the struggles that combat veterans face, with many still succumbing to the trauma of war after the battle is done.
“It’s so poignant that this soldier was down on his luck — wouldn’t steal, wouldn’t beg — so he took his life,” Bartell said. “The veterans coming back now have health issues, and a lot of them are down on their luck, and I think it’s not something new. Veterans from the Civil War going all the way back really struggle after serving their country ... there’s a lot more help out there now for these men and women that come back with problems and issues, and I think the more people who hear and read about these things, the better.”
According to a 2022 public health report from the National Library of Medicine, the rate of suicide is 1.5 times higher among all veterans and 2.1 times higher among female veterans compared with the general population. Adjusting for age differences, the suicide rate in 2023 among female veterans was 103.1% higher than for non-veteran U.S. women, and the age-adjusted rate for male veterans was 49.7% higher than for non-veteran men, the 2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report states.
Help is always available for veterans in crisis and their supporters. Caring, qualified responders provide confidential crisis support 24/7 at the Veterans Crisis Line. Just dial 988, then press 1.
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