Service.
Four armed service men from Edina have served tours in Iraq, enrolled in Army Ranger School, worn the uniform in 30 countries and protected the homeland against nuclear attack.
Respect.
They pay tribute to those who served them before them. They’re civil in the communities they help liberate. They fulfill the mission at hand.
Sacrifice.
They do it on regimented schedules thousands of miles from their families, friends and home. They forgo their freedom to create it for others.
Meet these four inspiring men:
Support and Solace
The support and solace Sean Anderson provides to his country were inherited characteristics from his mother Susan Anderson. The Navy pilot flies nuclear command and control missions to allow the President and the Joint Chiefs to remain in contact with resources abroad. The 26-year-old Edina man was also selected as a casualty assistance calls officer, with the somber task of notifying family members if their son or daughter loses their life in the line of duty.
“[I think] they picked him because of his sense of empathy toward other people,” Susan Anderson says.
At Our Lady of Grace church in Edina, Susan Anderson compiled a prayer and tribute book of local armed service members. The goal was to remind people of the need for prayer support to service members and their families and to build awareness of the altruistic aspects of service.
“They need our encouragement,” Susan Anderson says. “It’s not easy. No matter what their assignment, they are told what to do and they do it.”
Sean Anderson is told to participate in routine training missions in order to be ready in case the U.S. comes under attack. “Our mission requires us to stand alert to maintain a survivable link between the president and joint chiefs and his nuclear forces,” he says. “It is unique in that we are protecting the homeland and preventing any nuclear attack against the United States.”
Sean Anderson, who graduated from St. Thomas Academy in 2003 and Loyola University in Chicago in 2007, earned wings about two years ago and began embarking on stateside missions.
“I like the idea of putting service before self,” Sean Anderson says.
That doesn’t come without a price.
“The biggest sacrifice is not having freedom to have my own schedule,” he says. “Not being able to have the freedom to spend time with friends and family is the toughest part.”
“It’s nice to see new places and you appreciate a place once you come back to it,” he says. “That’s how I feel about Minnesota and Edina.”
‘Meant to Do’
Josh Krieter’s recent past included awaking at 1:30 a.m. to run 12 miles with a 60-pound pack strapped to his back in infantry training. The 23-year-old Edina man’s present has included little food, scant sleep, a stiff mental test and a grueling physical challenge in ranger school. The U.S. Army lieutenant’s near future will include jumping out of airplanes in airborne school.
“The more challenge there is, the more he wants to do it,” says his father, Mike Krieter.
Josh Krieter, who graduated from Edina High School in 2007 and West Point in 2011, has set the goal of becoming a rifle platoon leader, with the chance to serve active duty in a war zone.
“I would like the opportunity to experience that,” Josh Krieter says. “Obviously, it’s very tough and demanding.”
With strong groundstrokes, Josh Kreiter was a standout tennis player for the Hornets before taking his game to the Cadets in New York. Teamwork enticed him into giving up the sport for a more meaningful band of brothers.
“That community is the basis of everything that you do,” Josh Krieter says. “Good dynamics, hopefully, in my platoon would help work with the other militaries out there like the Afghan Army or Iraq Army, wherever I end up. Being able to trust your fellow soldier with everything is extremely important.”
That important mission keeps Josh focused as he’s away from Mike, his mom Angie, and his younger siblings, Eli and Emma.
“It’s tough. He’s gone,” Mike Krieter says. “It’s tough to have a family, but he’s focused on one goal and one goal only.”
Josh Krieter graduated in the top 10 percent in his West Point class, which Mike says can include hundreds of high school valedictorians.
“I think it’s something that I’m good at,” Josh Krieter says. “It’s what I’m meant to do.”
Respect and Readiness
In more than two decades with the Air Force, Dave Westgard traveled in 30 countries, including the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Ecuador and Antarctica. The 44-year-old former Edina resident was a maintenance worker and crew chief on fighter jets in those exotic locales, and now, as a senior IT analyst for Cargill, he tries to honor those who served before him and give advice to those currently serving.
“I feel like those ladies and gentlemen that were soldiers and sailors and airmen before us kind of really paid the mortgage on that for us,” he says of welcome-home ceremonies. “That’s a matter of pride for me.”
Instead of going off to college, Dave Westgard followed his father, Richard, straight into the Air Force. The 1985 Edina graduate’s first job was working on F16 fighter jets at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. From there, he embarked on his world tour.
His favorite mission was Antarctica in 2000 “because of the extreme nature of the mission—it was stark, austere and beautiful.” He’s flown into a war zone in the Balkans as well as Afghanistan—since 2001 he’s had four deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I don’t want to make it sound like that there were rounds going off, but the possibility was there,” Dave Westgard says of the Balkans. In Iraq and Afghanistan, it was common to experience mortar and rocket attacks, and soldiers became used to grabbing their gear and heading for a bunker until the “all clear” was given.
Each time he left home, he left a piece of himself with his three daughters—Anna, Emily and Lizzy. While they are now off to college, they understood what dad was trying to do.
"It's always really hard for the first couple of weeks," Lizzy Westgard says of her father's deployments. "Then you get used to the absence, but it comes back, the feeling of sadness of him not being there."
"But, I always think about how proud I've always been to say my dad was in the Air Force," Lizzy Westgard says.
Dave Westgard offers this advice to current service members.
“Some of them go over there on their initial tour with a sense of bravado,” he says. “What they really need to do is pay attention to their training and mind that … No matter if it’s being at shift on time or being ready to do their mission.”
Called to Civics
Signs of Robb Bauleke’s future plans began to surface as a kindergartener. The then six-year-old boy would knock on the window and chat with the Edina policeman who set up speed traps in the neighborhood.
“He always had great regard for people in uniform,” says his mother Chris Bauleke.
When the now 27-year-old Army field artillery officer returned from a tour in Iraq about 18 months ago, the same officer, Sgt. Steve Stroh, was at the welcome party.
Bauleke, who graduated from St. Thomas Academy in 2003 and St. John’s University in 2007, says the decision, which included the influence of his grandparents as predecessors in the Navy, was much more gradual.
“I knew that I wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than me,” he says.
During his deployment north of Baghdad, Bauleke was part of a Stryker brigade combat team. They helped train Iraqi security forces in military and security tactics, worked with local village leaders on governance and helped close U.S. bases.
Bauleke says he experienced no violence while in Iraq, but plenty of uncertainty.
“When Robb went to Iraq, I remember asking him how he was doing,” said Chris Bauleke, whose other son, Peter, is in the Army in Afghanistan. “He said to me, ‘You know, some days, I’m just fine. And then out of nowhere, I feel completely disconnected, vulnerable and scared.’ After he said that, I said to his dad (Greg), ‘That’s exactly how I feel.’”
Robb Bauleke, who was a dedicated swimmer at St. Thomas and member of the ROTC program at St. John’s, remains focused on mission goals.
“The focus is on making decisions and doing projects and conducting missions that have the intent of creating good affects,” he says, expecting an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
Chris Bauleke said in August that Peter’s deployment was “all I think about,” due to the danger of it. “He’s an infantry officer patrolling in a very active Taliban area outside of Kandahar, so I think about that daily.”
“It’s just a great sense of awe of them,” she says.
