Common Ground: Captain John Wheeler Remembered and Honored by Nephew
Season 13, Episode 12
Jim Wheeler of Bemidji, MN tells the heroic tale of his father’s older brother, Captain John Wheeler of the US Army. Jim relates his uncle’s youth in St. Paul, MN, and his path to Harvard as a career military officer. Then he continues to John’s enlistment in the army and to the Pacific Theater of WWII where Captain Wheeler would be captured and endure the Bataan Death March and a Hellship in Manila Bay. Jim tells of his journey to the Philippines as a living relative to present military medals of valor to his heroic deceased uncle.
And in a short bonus art segment, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Artist Hillary Kempenich exhibits at Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN.