In July 1967, shortly after graduating from Edsel Ford High School, Chuck Hanselman, Douglas McIlroy, and Michael Niezgoda enlisted in the U.S. Army. 

Doug was born in 1948 and attended Edison Junior High before going to Edsel, where he excelled in both football and basketball. Chuck, a track letterman at Edsel, was a kind, principled young man who loved Motown and stood firm in his beliefs. Mike, who grew up on Olmstead and enjoyed shop class at Edsel, shared a love of cars, especially his 1966 Mercury Comet Caliente.

The three friends completed boot camp and infantry training together and arrived in Vietnam just a few hours apart. Before they parted ways, they made a pact to celebrate Christmas 1968 together after returning home.

Doug and Chuck were assigned to D Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Infantry Brigade. They were sent to Quang Tin Province, where they conducted search and destroy operations in Hiep Duc Valley. Doug was killed in action on January 9, 1968, and tragically, Chuck died the very next day.

Mike survived another eight months before he, too, was killed in action.  He died on September 24, 1968, just days after his 20th birthday. 

Pasquale “Pat” D’Elia was born on October 8, 1923, near Scarcelli, a small rural village in the province of Cosenza in Calabria, Italy. He spent most of his early life in Italy until 1940, when he, his mother, and his brother Frank joined his father, Battista, who had immigrated to the United States in 1931.

The family initially lived on Ellar Avenue in Dearborn, where relatives operated a small grocery store and boarding house. As the family grew, they built a new home on Williamson Avenue in July 1942. Pat attended Fordson High School, where he developed an interest in mechanical engineering and studied subjects such as machine toolmaking.

Despite his father’s hopes that he might avoid military service, Pat was inducted into the U.S. Army in July 1943. After a brief visit home that December, he was assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland. While in sick bay there, he learned he would be deployed to Italy with a Tank Destroyer Battalion and shipped out shortly thereafter.

On May 25, 1944, he was killed in action during the Allied attempt to break out from the Anzio beachhead—just three years after arriving in the United States.

The Painter family of 22236 Audette in Dearborn was a large and close-knit household, where Adolph and Marie Painter raised 14 children, including sons Alvin and Lincoln.

Alvin, the eldest, graduated from high school in Curtis and was working at Ford Motor Company by the time the United States entered World War II. Though he likely could have received a deferment, he chose to serve. Sent overseas in 1942, Alvin served in the Northern Solomon Islands, but spent eight months recovering from malaria in Australia. Though he returned to duty, he ultimately died from complications related to the disease at just 22 years old.

Nearly a decade later, younger Lincoln Painter graduated from Henry Ford Trade School in 1948, where he excelled academically and athletically, distinguishing himself in both baseball and basketball. An exceptional baseball player, he was part of a national championship junior team in 1948 and later played catcher for the University of Michigan team in 1950 and 1951.

After his father’s death, Lincoln left school to return home and help his mother care for his younger siblings. Drafted into the Army in June 1952, he was sent to Korea, where he fought at Chat-Kol. Lincoln was killed in action at the age of 23. 

He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his bravery. At the time of his death, his brother, Dolph, was also serving in Korea and was able to accompany Lincoln’s body home.