On this and every Veterans Day, our nation honors those who served and the sacrifices they made to defend our nation.

Since the founding of our democracy, each person who has worn the uniform has left their mark on our nation as they defended our freedom.

As we pay tribute to all our veterans today, I am thinking about patriots like U.S. Army Captain Willibald Charles Bianchi of New Ulm, Minnesota, whose remains were identified on Aug. 11, 2025 — more than 80 years after he died while serving our country.

Captain Bianchi was born in New Ulm, grew up on a poultry farm and quit high school after his father died in a farming accident. He resumed his schooling at the University of Minnesota Farm School in St. Paul and the South Dakota State University.

When he graduated in 1940, he was i

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