NEW BERLIN, Wis. — A student and teacher from New Berlin represented the state of Wisconsin in a nationwide project to honor U.S. service members killed in World War II.
Since Dec. 2023, Jackei Jecha, a social studies teacher at New Berlin West High School, and senior Kate Olson, have been busy researching the D-Day Campaign of 1944.
It’s part of an annual project called The Price of Freedom organized by the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute in Washington, D.C. The project takes more than a dozen high school student-teacher teams through an intensive program to learn about World War II and uncover more about a U.S. service member who died from their area. Then, they write that soldier’s biography.
Jecha and Olson were assigned to research a soldier from Milwaukee named William Weber, who died at the age of 19, while on a mission to deliver supplies to Normandy, France, during World War II. They said finding information about him, roughly 80 years after he died, was not easy.
“It was really challenging, but it was very fulfilling,” Jecha said. “I always wan to bring the stories into my classroom. There are no better ways to do that than putting a name with a face and a story for someone who lived, served, and gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
As part of the project, Jecha and Olson got to spend a week learning at The George Washington University and visit historic sites in the nation’s capital. Then, they traveled to Normandy to walk the beaches and battlefields. Olson was able to read a eulogy she wrote for Weber next to his gravesite at the Normandy-American Cemetery, where he is buried.
“I will forever remember this moment, and will forever continue telling people about this moment,” Olson said. “I quite literally gave his grave a hug. That’s how excited and happy I was to finally meet this person that I dedicated eight months of my life to researching.”
The research Jecha and Olson did is now a part of the cemetery’s database and archive. Jecha said that is an achievement she’s proud of. But she said she’s even prouder to have watched one of her students excel at this assignment.
“The best part has been getting to see Kate get this experience with the history and the research,” Jecha said.
Together, they said they were able to experience the price of freedom through a soldier’s eyes, and make sure he is known and remembered going forward.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the last name of the WWII soldier. This has been corrected. (Aug. 13, 2024)