It is always a good feeling when we get the annual Our Heroes magazine done and sent off to the printing plant.

That happened this past Monday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

I know, we used to shoot for Our Heroes magazine to come out on Veterans Day. But, the last couple of years, we have delayed it one week, mainly because we are doing so many other projects, such as the Holiday Gift Guide magazine, Community Focus magazine, Car Care and Home Improvement sections that we don’t have lots of time to work on Our Heroes.

And, it takes a lot of time to create Our Heroes. Way more time than any other project we do.

Why? Well, just finding story ideas takes a bit of work. We are trying to find interesting stories about veterans serving in wars and conflicts. Sure, all veterans are heroes, but we try to find the ones who have an interesting story about their time in the service.

Then, of course, we have to find someone who will share that story with us.

We try and have a variety of stories, from the Civil War to the Gulf War and other current military conflicts. And we try to find stories about veterans from all around Faribault County.

Of course, many of our veterans from the Civil War to the Vietnam War, have passed away. Some were killed in combat, while others have died in the years following the war they were in.

After we find some names, we check them out. The next step is research. That is especially true for those vets who have died.

Sometimes we can find documentation about their service. Sometimes family members have a lot of information, but sometimes they just say “Dad didn’t talk much about his time in the Army.”

The problem, often, is finding photos of the veterans we are trying to do a story on. Especially if they passed away many years ago and there are not many family members left.

This year, for instance, we had three names we were thinking of writing about, and all three had to be abandoned for one reason or another.

There was a fourth one that we probably should have abandoned, but I went on with it anyway. Call me stubborn.

All I had was a very short newspaper clipping from 1945 about a Blue Earth man, Glen Johnson. And I had a whole lot of information about the ship he was on. The story about the ship was an absolutely amazing saga of heroism, but I had very little information about Glen Johnson himself.

I searched and searched and came up with a Glenn Johnson who fit the time period. But it turned out to be a different Glenn Johnson from Blue Earth, not the one who served in the Navy on the USS Newcomb.

The Glen Johnson I was looking for could not be found.

I felt the story was such an interesting one that I went ahead and wrote it anyway.

I suspect that if there are some family members who see this edition of the Our Heroes magazine, they will shoot me an email or call me on the phone.

I hope they do. If I find out anything interesting, I will certainly share it with our readers.

This year’s Our Heroes, the 22nd one we have done, is a bit different in several ways.

First off, we have not one, but two stories about Civil War veterans from Faribault County. We even have some photos of the two men, something not easily found.

Secondly, in one of the stories, I was even able to have authentic quotes from the Civil War veteran, not an easy task to get quotes from a vet who has been dead for over 80 years.

Luckily Washington Kelley was interviewed and quoted in a story in the Wells Mirror, many years ago. Even luckier, Julie Schrader, formerly of Wells, did a lot of research on Kelley and was very happy to share it with us for this story.

She is among many folks we need to thank for their assistance on these stories this year.

Julie did research and wrote a biography of Washington Kelley because he was going to be honored as the last living Civil War Union soldier in Faribault County at the time of his death.

Kelley’s great-granddaughter was also a big help with this story and getting photos for it.

For the other Civil War veteran story on Jacob Shirk, his great-great-grandson, Steve Shirk, and other family members, were very helpful.

For the story about World War II veteran Albert Sonnek, his family members were also of great assistance in providing background and photos.

Of course, I cannot say enough about local history buff A.B. Russ, who helps out every year with some names and some background info. The information was helpful with the stories on Jacob Shirk, Norman Midthun and Glen Johnson.

Of course, the information A.B. had on Glen Johnson was minimal. And, me finding more about him was even less productive.

So, if you know anything about him, feel free to let me know. Yes, it is too late to get it into the story in the Heroes magazine, but still, it will be good to know what happened to him.

I hope you all enjoy this year’s Our Heroes magazine as much as we enjoy bringing it to you.