Shawn Wheeler hauled to his workplace a suitcase containing pieces of his life.

There was red, white and blue plastic bunting; a yellow bow the size of his head; early 1991 editions of the weekly Poynette Press newspaper; and, a letter from Poynette schoolchildren on red, white and blue construction paper, outlining the freedoms that people in the United States enjoy, thanks largely to the men and women of the military.

For now, the only person to whom he would showthese things was Jeff Breuer, a co-worker at the University of Wisconsin's Arlington Agricultural Research Station, who had brought Gulf War artifacts of his own - including Iraqi currency, soda cans with Arabic slogans and a case of Meals Ready to Eat.

Together, they sorted through their items Tuesday night at the research station's headquarters, as they planned their presentation for next week's Veterans Day program at the Wyocena Public Library.

"We're working out what we're going to say, and what we're going to show," Wheeler said.

Breuer was instrumental in organizing last year's Wyocena Veterans Day event, which featured his friend, Jeff Gerrits of Waupun, reading letters written by Gerrits' great-uncle, Pvt. Leonard Zenz, a machine gunner who was killed in battle in France during World War I. A standing-room-only crowd filled the Wyocena Community Center for that presentation.

This time, the war stories to be told will be Breuer's, and Wheeler's.

They'll center on a conflict that people tend to forget - the Persian Gulf War, a response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The air and land combat operation, known in the United States as Operation Desert Storm, began in January 1991 and ended a few months later. Kuwait was liberated in February 1991.

One day, Wheeler and Breuer were chatting while working together at the silage bunker at the Arlington station's dairy research facility. That's when they found out that they'd both served in the Gulf War.

Breuer was a member of the Wisconsin National Guard 13th Evac Hospital, activated for the conflict in November 1990. He landed in Saudi Arabia in January 1991, and served at a tent hospital near Hafar al Batin until the end of April 1991.

Wheeler was a 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Platteville undergraduate whose Madison-based Marine reserve unit, Delta Company Second Battalion 24th Marines (now known as Gulf Company 224) was activated in November 1990. He served in Saudi Arabia, near the Kuwait border, from New Year's Day until the end of April 1991.

"They'd always drill into us, 'Be prepared,' that we might be called on to fight," Wheeler said. "But I was just 19 - so green, just off the farm."

Breuer said his reading of the classic novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque resonates with him, because the protagonist - a German soldier during World War I - experienced much of what Breuer experienced in the Gulf War.

"That could have been you or me," he said to Wheeler. "I remember the foxholes, the raids going off overhead."

But the Gulf War saw the inauguration of a new wartime experience: MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat.

Breuer had a case of them, unopened in their dark brown plastic pouches. The meals, and the water-activated heating sleeves used with them, were designed to fit into the cargo pockets on his uniform pants.

Wheeler said the nearly 20-year-old MREs are probably still edible. He didn't particularly care for the chicken a la king, but the ham wasn't bad at all, he said.

And, if he didn't like a particular MRE, he could trade with someone else in his unit; each case of MRE pouches offered a dozen different entrees.

Wheeler said bringing in his Gulf War artifacts and comparing them with Breuer's, gave him a rare opportunity to reflect on his experiences.

The Veterans Day program in Wyocena will be one of the few times he's told his war stories in public.

"It's very humbling," he said, "to put all this in front of people. I'm no better than any soldier, sailor or Marine that served. I just did my job. They told me to go, so I went."

If you go

What: Veterans Day observance, featuring the Gulf War experiences of Jeff Breuer of Pardeeville and Shawn Wheeler of Poynette

When: 6:30 p.m. Nov. 11

Where: Wyocena Community Center

Cost: Free

Who can come: Anyone, of all ages. Guests who have served in the military are invited to bring photos and stories of their experiences, especially in the Gulf War.

Sponsors: Wyocena Public Library, Friends of the Wyocena Public Library

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