GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – John Wierer joined the Army at the age of 17, as a way to help pay for school, and mature before going to college.
A passion for music and drawing would soon turn into a passion for engineering.
“They said engineering was a good one for me to get into,” said Wierer, “I was definitely interested in construction, and I already had a lot of equipment experience growing up on the different farms.”
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Wierer went to Missouri for basic training and was then sent to Alabama, where he would soon take part in aiding families during the Elba flood.
It was then that the young Wisconsin man learned the world was way bigger and could be frustrating.
“We helped rescue people from the floodwaters there and then helped tear apart all the houses so that we could reconstruct what they needed reconstructed,” said Wierer, “So you start to realize that the world wasn’t what your parents and your family kind of portrayed it as. I guess as what the best word to use it is.”
Near the end of his four-year service term, Wierer would be deployed to Kuwait, working in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, helping build roads and making way for supplies to be brought to the front lines.
“It’s hard to believe, looking back now, thinking, you know, what kind of danger we were in all the time. But we had a group of NCOs that were Vietnam veterans,” said Wierer, “So they were very experienced in, they were not, their intent was to go there, and win and come back with everybody, that was their intent, that was their goal, and that’s what we did.”
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Wierer says his time in the Army was a big factor in shaping him into the man he is today.
“The risk was worth the reward, and there’s consequences like anything; freedom doesn’t come free. Somebody has to pay the price, and if you look around the world,” said Wierer, “And that’s remembering what they went through. And putting an end to it was what made it worth it.”
John Wierer says that he would do it all over again. Wierer is a part of the Duck Creek VFW Post and is grateful to have the connections with like-minded people who want to continue giving back to the community.
