ANDERSON: All right. Today is Friday, September 1st, 2023. This is Merry Anderson. We're talking with Tyron, Ty, Letto, and I am at the Veteran's Museum. No one else is in the room. And you are home in Beaver Dam, correct? 

LETTO: Yes, Correct. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay. Well, let's start right at the beginning. Tell me where you grew up. Family, brothers and sisters. Mom and Dad. 

LETTO: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I was born [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]. And grew up for the first 12 years in Algonquin, Illinois. And then my dad was transferred up here with work to Hartford, Wisconsin. So, I really call Hartford kind of where I grew up because I was pretty young and in Algonquin there. So, I grew up in Hartford. I went to Northwestern Prep and Watertown for high school. I was studying to be a pastor for the first five years, four years of high school, a year college there. I have one sister. Her name is Tanya and she lives down in Gulf Shores, Alabama now. And then my mom passed away in 2012. My father's still alive and he's in Hustisford. 

ANDERSON: What did your dad do? 

LETTO: And he worked in-- He was a foundry supply salesman at the time that we relocated, and then he became the general manager of the company that he was working for called Mill Chap, Milwaukee Chaplin. They were in the foundry business. 

ANDERSON: Northwestern Prep. I know it well. 

LETTO: Yeah. Yeah. I went there four years of high school, a year college, five years of Latin, three years of German, and a year of Greek. 

ANDERSON: So, you were-- studying-- you were thinking about being a pastor? 

LETTO: Yeah. And I just kind of realized it wasn't my calling. And I joined the military. So, I graduated. I went from there to Northwestern College. I want to UW Milwaukee for a short period of time. And then I joined the military in '87. So I graduated in '83, bounced around for about four years with-- between the two colleges and then went in the military. I went in first as an Army reservist down in Milwaukee, and then after a year I joined the active service, Active Army, and I was sent to Germany and I was in Germany from 1989 to 1992. I saw the wall come down. You know, when I got there, we were patrolling the border as part of a field artillery unit. And when I left, the wall was down, and Germany was united again. I was even in Berlin in February of 1992, with three months after the wall fell, I got to chip a piece of the wall myself and got a picture of me doing it, and we took my then three-month-old daughter along or two-month-old daughter. So, I have pictures of her in East Berlin and things like that. It was a pretty, pretty neat experience. 

ANDERSON: If you don't mind, let's if we can backtrack just a little bit. 

LETTO: Yeah. 

ANDERSON: You go from wanting to be a pastor a couple of years of college. When did the light bulb go on and you said, I'm going to join the military? What what inspired that or motivated that? 

LETTO: Interesting question. You know, as a kid, I always loved playing Army. I had G.I. Joes and all that kind of stuff. I had, I had been in a long-term relationship that we had gotten married in '86, [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]. And I was kind of lost and floundering and trying to figure out where I was going with my life. And I just, you know, the military had always been in the back of my head. And that voice kind of came forward and spoke up and family supported me. So, I went ahead, and as you can tell by joining reserves, I did it methodically. I'm a bit of a methodical guy and tried the reserves out to see if it was going to work and loved it so much that I decided go active duty. And I specifically requested Germany just because of the three years a German and the German heritage, too. 

ANDERSON: So, absolutely. Any, any family members in the military? Dad? Uncles and Aunts? 

LETTO: Yeah. Up until that point, my father's brother had served in Germany, I think in the '50s or early '50s, and my second cousin, Roger Letto, was killed in Vietnam and his name is on a Vietnam wall. So that's really the only family that had a military background. And, oh, I take it back, my grandfather on my mom's side, Grandpa King, was in World War Two. He was in the Philippines. 

ANDERSON: In the Philippines. Wow. 

LETTO: Yup.
 
ANDERSON: How about basic training? Where did you go for basic? 

LETTO: So that was during the Reagan era. So I went to Fort Bliss, Texas, for basic training. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I did eight weeks there, and my MOS was 71 Delta at the time. Now, 27 Delta. And that's paralegal. Back then, they called it a legal specialist. So, I worked with-- I was embedded in a field artillery unit in Germany and worked with the local JAG office, you known, advising the commander on UCMJ. 

ANDERSON: So, tell me about the-- of all of the things you could have chosen for an MOS, the legal field. What inspired that?  

LETTO: Sure. I had, I had college. You know, I think I had like 120 credits or 118 credits at the time. So, I went in as a PFC. And I wanted to do something that I could use on the outside. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: So, when I looked at the MOS, MOS that I was eligible for after taking the ASVAB, I was looking for something that would translate back to civilian life. And the legal specialist just appealed to me. And it would definitely, you know, reflect back in civilian life. And quite frankly, my my entire military and civilian career was based off of that decision. You know, you look back 30, 30 plus years now and you go, wow, that one decision was very pivotal for me. 

ANDERSON: Wow. Isn't that amazing how that happens? Any interesting stories about basic training? 

LETTO: Um? 

ANDERSON: How about being a Midwestern boy in--? 

LETTO: Texas. 

ANDERSON: In the heart of Texas. 

LETTO: So, yeah, I got there in February. So it was pretty interesting. There's a couple of things that stood out to me. It was my first real exposure to, um, bathrooms that just had lines of toilets and no stalls. And that really sticks out to me as a you know, as a kid, I had never really been exposed to that. So it was kind of weird. It was kind of a weird scenario. You know, I excelled in basic for the most part. I excelled with the structure. We had a couple strange things that I don't know if it's really tangible to what we're talking about. But, you know, back then, you know, homosexuality and things like that were not tolerated. So we had a scenario involving two guys, you know, in basic training. You know, they were there one day and the word got out as to what happened, and then they basically were gone the next day. Because, I mean, quite frankly, most, part of my military career, you know, we processed people out of the military for homosexuality. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: So. So that was one thing. And like I said, I don't know if that's really applicable here, but that was one thing that stood out. I think the heat was a big one. We went to whites, we went to White Sands Missile Base for our bivouac and it was a two week long bivouac, sleeping and half shelters, you know. So you'd get up in the morning and it was in the 30s and by, you know, noon, 1:00 on the firing range, it was 90. And we had to march five miles there and five miles back. So I can remember specifically that was really challenging, you know. How do you, how do you even pack for that and dress for that, right? 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: So that was challenging. I remember, you know, the constant keep watch, keeping a watch for diamondback rattlers and scorpions and spiders, especially sleeping in those half shelters. So that was something else that kind of sticks out for me. I mean, you know, we can talk about this later in detail, but I had the opportunity to see my old basic training site in 2005. When I deployed to Iraq, I went through Fort Bliss, and I got to go up on the hill and see where the buildings used to be. They're no longer there but where they used to be. And it was really strange. I remember the hills that we walked up and down and stuff, and now you could see them really, really clearly because there were no buildings, and just driving around that area was memorable.

ANDERSON:  Wow. So that would have been, what, how many years? 

LETTO: So that would have been um--. 

ANDERSON: About 15 years difference? 

LETTO: Yeah, pretty close to it. 1987 to 2005. So 95, ten, yeah about 15 years. 

ANDERSON: Wow. So after basic, you go to AIT, right? 

LETTO: Yup. So I went to AIT at Fort Ben Harrison. 

ANDERSON: Oh, Fort Ben Harrison. 

LETTO: In Indianapolis.

ANDERSON: Okay. Then I'm going to--. 

LETTO: Yeah. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay. In Indianapolis. Okay. So a little closer to home. 

LETTO: Yeah. And that was, that was kind of--. A couple of things that stick out there, I, you know, I had got my orders and it said I had the report by I think it was Sunday night. It was a Friday when we left, and it was Sunday night that I had to report by. So I jumped in a car at the airport in Indianapolis and drove all the way up to Wisconsin to spend a day and a half with family, turned around and drove back. 

ANDERSON: Drove right back. Wow.

LETTO: And and made it, you know, made it in time to report. A couple of things down there, you know, it was obviously a big change from basic training. I got to know Indianapolis real well because that's why I went back for B-NOC. And then I also had gone back there several times. Well, and actually, we'll get to it, but I ended up being stationed there for a year when I came back from Germany. 

ANDERSON: Oh, okay. 

LETTO: Fort Ben Harrison. I got pretty familiar with it. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: But AIT it was wasn't--. So things that stick out for me at AIT, you know, I was able to have my car at AIT. My well, my ex-wife and I tried to patch things up because we weren't officially divorced yet. And after I was done with AIT, I moved back in with her for like three weeks and realized it wasn't anything. So the marriage fell apart. We got divorced in October of '87. Just, I developed a lot of friends there that because the, because the JAG Corps is fairly small in the Army, you meet people and you see them again if you make a career out of it. So, you know, I made some friends there that that were lasting friends. So. So, that that's pretty much what I remember. I mean, there's some memories that pop up about, you know, the bivouac and map training and stuff like that, but nothing hugely memorable compared to the rest of my career. 

ANDERSON: And what kind of legal training did you get at AIT? What were some of the--? 

LETTO: Sure. Yeah. You know. 

ANDERSON: Some of the coursework? 

LETTO: We had, we learned how to do Article 15s. We learned how to do separations. We learned how to conduct the various types of court martials. And we got intimately knowledgeable of the UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. Had to type. We were still using typewriters back then, so I had to be able to type 60 words a minute. So that was a big part of the, you know, passing the grade was being able to type fast enough. And fortunately, I had had some typing in in high school and college. So I had a little bit of a leg up on some of my peers. So that was really the, you know, the primary training. So you had to be able to go in, you had to be able to interpret. They would give you a scenario of, let's say, a soldier, you know, stole something from the PX and it was this dollar amount, and then you had to be able to advise the commander and come up with recommendations on how to, you know, how to do it. Do you do it on Article 15? Do you do it with separation, depending on if there were priors, you know, or is it something that's that's, you know, you go into some type of a court martial with whether it be a general court martial or a full blown court martial. I don't remember all the terms, quite frankly. That was a long time ago. So that was the stuff. We do a lot of scenario stuff, and that was a lot of what the exams and quizzes and things like that were. 

ANDERSON: So you're still, you are still a PFC at that point? Correct?

LETTO: Yep.

ANDERSON: Okay.

LETTO: So I get out. I get out of AIT. I went back to my unit on Silver Spring in Milwaukee. I think it was the 84th Division at the time because they were headquartered out of Fort Sheridan, Illinois. And there I went to a JAG office, a reserve JAG office, and quite frankly, we did nothing. And I was so bored, because, you know, you go to drill on a weekend, you just did nothing. And and I had met my wife, my second wife while I was in the Reserves. And it was then that I decided, the two of us decided I should go to active duty and the two of us, she had a strong German heritage also and could speak some German also, so we decided to ask for Germany specific. 

ANDERSON: Well, what did, what did you do then in Milwaukee when you weren't? 

LETTO: So, when I wasn't drilling.

ANDERSON: Did you have a civilian job?

LETTO: I lived with mom and dad, and I quite frankly, I worked at a company delivering booze out of Oconomowoc. It is called Bonded Spirits. So, you know, it's just something to pay the bills until I made the decision. You know, I was dating my my second wife and, and at that time, you know, I was very close with the family and they were big into racing. I don't know if you've ever heard of The Fassbender's. They were big into racing. So I followed the family around quite a bit, we were racing and things like that. 

ANDERSON: Car racing? 

LETTO: Yup. Yup. Stock car racing. Sprint cars. Stuff like that. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: So that, it would have been, I met Lana. I met Lana in December of '87 and when we got married in November of '88, and I deployed to Germany in February of '89.

ANDERSON: So like, four months later, roughly? 

LETTO: Yeah, it was, yeah, it was two, three months after we got married that I deployed. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Was that your first trip out of the country? 

LETTO: That was my first trip out of the country. Yeah.

ANDERSON: Okay. And where were you?

LETTO: And it was a big, it was a big step because, you know, you go over there and you have no idea how long it's going to take to get your wife there. 

ANDERSON: Right. Well, that was going to be my next question. Did she go with you? 

LETTO: Not when I left. So I. When I left. I left January. Think it was the third week of January, and I went to Fort Dix, New Jersey. I sat at Fort Dix for two weeks. And basically we were cleaning crew for two weeks. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: And then I went to Germany and I arrived at the 3rd Infantry Division, Rock of the Marne in Wurzburg at the JAG office. And from there they decided to send me to Schweinfurt, Germany to the 541 Field Artillery Unit as a legal specialist. And at that time I was still a PFC. 

ANDERSON: Still, a PFC.

LETTO: I had maybe E4 on reserves, but when I went active, they put me back to PFC. Okay. So then, you know, you go to work right away and you also go to work and try to get your family over there. So I got into the unit in February and my wife got there in March. So it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad at all. So I was in the barracks for about six weeks. And then I went, I found an apartment in a little town called Schonungen. And it was probably 3 or 4 miles outside of town. And I got a car and brought the wife over. And we ended up becoming incredibly close with the landlords, Herr and Frau Friedrich and we stayed in contact with them until they died. They passed away about five years ago, six years ago.
ANDERSON: Wow. Wow.
 
LETTO: They even came over here and visited us and stuff, so it was pretty neat. I got to see a lot of the German culture. 

ANDERSON: How did your high school German serve you? 

LETTO: Paid dividends. And that's part of why we hit it off with them, because we, you know, we would at least try to speak German. So at the field artillery unit, I excelled. I did really, really well. I mean, I Worked with the commander. We had some pretty strange cases while I was there. We had a, they had just wrapped up a triple murder arson in our unit. I wasn't a part of that, but I came right after it. So the legal legal specialists before me was a big part of that. But I had stabbings. I had assaults. I had a lot of DUIs, drunk and disorderly's. I had multiple homosexuality cases, one that involved all of the cooks in our unit and pretty much basically shut the medical down for a while because there was a big group of them doing all kinds of stuff that obviously wasn't acceptable back then. And I was there until, I served in that unit from '89 to '90,  about '91. And during that time we came home a couple of times, and one of the trips home was when we were spinning up the Gulf War. And when I was coming home, I was basically from being on leave. When I was coming back to Germany, rather off of leave, I was in contact. You know, we didn't have cell phones and emails and all that kind of stuff back then. I mean, we're talking late '80s, early '90s. But I had gotten word that we were deploying to the Gulf. And so on my way home, I'm prepping myself and Lana and for me basically getting back and probably shipping out right away. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: And between the time it took me to travel from Wisconsin back to Germany, they had changed their mind and they decided to ship the field artillery unit from Kitzingen instead of Germany. So I ended up not having to go to the Gulf War. While I was there, and I did all that legal stuff, but then I was responsible for being a part of the personnel. I was part of the personnel unit. So we spent three months out of the year and in the Hohenfel field training field artillery. So when I wasn't doing legal stuff. 

ANDERSON: This is combat training? 

LETTO: This is a combat training. Yeah. So I'm moving with the field artillery, supporting the field artillery while they're doing all of their their firing and stuff like that. So I got a lot of practical experience for combat that, quite frankly, paid off later in my career. 

ANDERSON: Talk about wearing two hats, right? 

LETTO: Yeah, Yeah, very much following. It taught me a lot. It taught me a lot. So in '91, I was the, the staff judge advocate in Wurzburg, who's the head attorney and head of all the JAG office for the 3rd ID, 3rd Infantry Division. He decided to consolidate all of the JAG officers and pull legal specialists who are embedded with the units up to the JAG office. So I was pulled out of the unit, but only like nine months till I went home and put it at the JAG office. And the last nine months I was there, I served at the JAG office. By this time now I was an E5. So I made E5 while I was in Germany. Okay? I went to PLDC in Kitzingen at that school there. And I'm 85 pretty quickly and my college credits and things like that paid off. 

ANDERSON: Okay. PLDC, Primary Leadership Development. 

LETTO: Development Course. Yup. 

ANDERSON: Just to go back a little bit, when you say I had stabbing, I had DUIs. When you say had, what does that mean? 

LETTO: Those were cases that I handled. 

ANDERSON: And how specifically did you handle them? Did you have do the paper, file the charges and--? 

LETTO: File all the charges. Work with the attorney to file those charges. Work with the attorney to conduct the court martial that took place, you know, with a military judge. We had a, we had one summary court martial that we did in the field on a guy who had repeat offenses with drinking and getting in a lot of trouble and disorderly conduct. And we, we sent him to Mannheim for 30 days. And that was that was kind of, back then, it was kind of a, I would say a cool thing, because I was one of the few PFCs that, or one of the few legal specialists that did a court martial, in an extent, sitting on gas cans. You know, out in the middle of a field maneuver in [inaudible]. You know, it's always a fun story to come back and talk about when you were back at the JAG office. So that was a memorable moment. 

ANDERSON: The other thing that's interesting is that at the time you were in Germany, you know, that was, for Germany, it was a time of incredible upheaval. Did you have a sense of that? Did you did you know that was coming? Frankfurt is very close to what was then East Germany. 

LETTO: Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said we were patrolling the border when I got there. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: Yeah. I mean, each unit rotated for patrolling the border. So, I mean, when the wall came down, you know, there was a real sense of victory for a period of time. And then, like anything else, reality hits, right? So, you know, all those old probably East German cars start driving on the autobahn, and they you know, they smoked, because they were two cycle engines and stuff and and they didn't go fast. And the Germans got pretty upset and frustrated at that. The Germans got very upset and frustrated over the costs involved of rebuilding East Berlin and East Germany. And, you know, and, you know, all those costs were burdens on government and on a people with taxation and things like that. So those were all things that I had firsthand knowledge of because we were so close with our landlords. You know, it wasn't unusual for me to go over there every night and have a beer or a glass of wine with them and sit and talk. 

ANDERSON: How did they feel about unification? 

LETTO: They had mixed feelings about it. They they loved the fact that Germany was Germany again and that we had defeated communism, so to speak. But on the other hand, they were very worried about the future and the costs and things like that because he was a carpenter, and he ran his own business. And, you know, for him they paid a lot of taxes already and all. And now, you know, what was it going to be like? 

ANDERSON: So did you ever have a sense there would be any kind of violence related? 

LETTO: Never had a violence. 

ANDERSON: To the. 

LETTO: No. Never had a violence concern. And quite frankly, I was out of the bigger urban areas. I wasn't in the deeper urban area. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: So, you know, you just you just didn't see that. There was more of, the Germans back then, and I don't know what they're like today because I haven't been back since 2006, but the Germans back then were very common sense people. Very, very common sense people. So, you know, they knew what they had to do, and they were hard workers. God, I remember every Saturday morning they swept the curbs, you know. I always said if Germany was the next state over, I'd live there, because, you know, I loved my stay there. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my whole life. It's wonderful because, again, part of it was the landlords. I mean, they took us to, they took us mountain climbing in Austria as part of the Schweinfurt climbing club. And we stayed overnight in their club house where people stayed overnight to sleep so they could climb the rest of the way the next day. And my wife and I spoke German for three days straight, you know, And it was funny. I can remember going to bed one night and I started talking to her and I was talking to her in German instead of English. And we kind of laughed at each other. It's like, I guess we can switch to English now. But you know, that's how close we got to them, you know? And I've got a picture downstairs of us at the top of that mountain with the cross with Herr Friedrich, you know. 

ANDERSON: It sounds like, you know, Germany was like an ultimate experience. You liked the work. You liked the people, you liked the country. 

LETTO: Yeah, and I develop close friends, which, ironically, close friends in the military. My M-2IC and some of my other peers from the personnel office that we're actually having our first reunion after, what, 40, 30, 30 some years? 35 years, 34 years. We're going to get together in March of next year and go on a cruise together. 

ANDERSON: In Germany or? 

LETTO: No, it's a Bahamas cruise. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: Yeah. So so, yeah. 

ANDERSON: This is sort of an off the wall question, but as someone who was, it appears to be raised, similar to how you were raised, you're in a country that has a lot of history with someone who was raised Lutheran. Wittenberg. 

LETTO: And I've been to Wittenberg. I've been to a lot of those places.

ANDERSON: Tell me about that a little bit. 

LETTO: Wittenberg, Cobalt Castle? Coburg Castle. It was incredible. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. That's where, that's where he hid away. Yeah. 

LETTO: It was very humbling. 

ANDERSON: Was it? 

LETTO: Very humbling it was just incredible. And, you know, we saw, I'll be honest with you, when I came home from Germany, I was church and Castle [devout??]. I mean, well, we, you know, as a as a PFC and then coming back as an E-5 even then, you know, you couldn't afford to do a whole lot. So we just traveled a lot doing churches and castles. And I mean, I've I've been to Octoberfest three times. You know, we did that kind of stuff. Now, we did do a bus trip to France to Paris. So, it was kind of a weekend bus trip there and back. But seeing this, going back to your original question, it was, it was very humbling. You know, it was, and the Friedrich's are a Lutheran also. So it, you know, there was a connection there. I mean, I can remember going to a German Christmas church service with Frau Friedrich in Schweinfurt one time. You know, she took us down to the Christkindl mart and then we went over to what the church floor and it was neat. It was neat. So that was Germany. 

ANDERSON: And that was three, three years in Germany? 

LETTO: Yup. I spent three years in Germany. I came back and on my way back I had signed up to go to airborne school, because I wanted to jump out of airplanes. 

ANDERSON: Really? Okay. 

LETTO: Yeah. And I signed up and got airborne school, so I was going to be enrolled to airborne school on my way to Fort Carson, Colorado. And I got orders to be able to go to BNOC. So I canceled the orders for airborne school, went to BNOC at Fort Ben Harrison in  route to Fort Carson, Colorado. 

ANDERSON: Okay. That's the basic noncom officer's course, right? 

LETTO: Right, right. So basically, PLDC preps you for sergeant E5. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: BNOC preps you for Staff Sergeant E6.

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay. 

LETTO: And their names are different today. 

ANDERSON: All right. 

LETTO: I don't know what their names are today. 

ANDERSON: All right. 

LETTO: So, my wife was pregnant with our second child because my oldest was born in in Germany. So we got back to Fort Ben Harrison. We were on leave for a little while. I got back Fort Ben Harrison. I went through BNOC while Lana stayed at home and in Hartford. And while I was there, Lana and I were talking about getting out of active duty, and I only had a year left of my enlistment. And there was a position opened up at the JAG office at the Fort Ben Harrison JAG Office. And. We decided to, and and I inquired, and they were interested in me, and I went ahead and took that position at Fort Ben Harrison instead of Fort Carson when I finished BNOC. I basically transitioned BNOC and went to the JAG office there. There I was in a JAG office and I was responsible for administrative law section. So we handled hours of attorney wills, you know, all of those administrative type things. We had a municipal type court that we ran. So, you know, I dealt with that piece of law, where in Germany, I dealt with it all, okay? Because as a, as a legal specialist, you deal with everything, right, embedded in the unit, and then when I got up to the JAG office, I was in the criminal law section for that nine month period of time, which was pretty short and not a whole lot going on. I mean, we had a murder case, but that wasn't my unit. It was another legal specialist that it was handling that. So. So, I did Fort Ben Harrison for a year and we decided we made the decision to get out. So I was out at that point. It would have been 1993. And, you know, you've got that eight year commitment. And my dad was like, why don't you join the National Guard and do your last couple of years in the Guard, because he saw how I was. I think, quite frankly, my my parents and my wife's parents thought I was nuts for getting out, because they saw how well I was doing. And my dad was the one that actually talked me into doing the National Guard, because I was just going to get out. And because I didn't want to take a cut in rank because the guard wanted. They wanted--. So, Dad said that to me. I checked into it. They told me I was going to get knocked down to a PFC. I earned my hard stripes on active duty. I was like, no freakin way am I doing it. And my dad knew a guy whose brother was in the guard and knew the staff judge advocate for all of the Wisconsin National Guard. And next thing you know, I've got an E5 position with the Wisconsin National Guard. So I got out of active duty and went straight into Wisconsin National Guard. 

ANDERSON: And this is 1993?

LETTO: 1993. So I got out in March of 1993 from active duty and went straight to the guard. 

ANDERSON: What happened to airborne school? 

LETTO: It just, it went away with BNOC. So basically, they canceled the orders because I was, I chose BNOC from a career perspective, which again, these little decisions looking back on them were all pivotal decisions.

ANDERSON: Sure. 

LETTO: Because, because I'll tell you what happens next. So I get back. I'm on terminal leave for 60 days and I go to work finding a job on the civilian side. And lo and behold, I get hired as the first, first non internal candidate for the Waukesha County Clerk of Courts Office supervisory position. They had never hired a supervisor before that wasn't an internal candidate and hired me fresh out of. Fresh out of active duty. I will tell you, it was a struggle at first because I was pretty high speed, low drag and trying to switch gears to civilian life. I was one of two males in a staff of 80 women. So there was an adjustment there. 

ANDERSON: Yeah, I can imagine. 

LETTO: Yeah. You know, we think differently. Okay, we do. So I learned. But all of these things were very, very incredible learning experiences, because while I was there, I was in the National Guard doing, you know. So, this would have been post Gulf War. So we were we were doing a lot more work around making sure the units were prepped and ready for deployment, you know, making sure everything was straight. We were starting to do they call them remotes. It's basically a ready, ready mobilization is what it stood for. So you're basically running these units through to keep them ready for mobilization if they were to be called up at any time. So I was doing that with the Guard as a legal specialist, or legal NCO. And on the other side, I was doing this deputy clerk supervisor job where I was the supervisor of all of the divorce and paternity cases for Waukesha County. 

ANDERSON: Wow. 

LETTO: I had 22 staff. We handled all of the receiving and dispersing of child support. And at that time, they called it alimony. And I had three judges that we supported through calendars. And I, so I not only supervised and ran all that, but I was in and out of court doing, you know, clerking in the courtroom. And I was exposed to bringing all of the paper records from paper to the Circuit Court Automation project or CCAP. So we were one of the biggest county's bigger counties besides Milwaukee, because we were second largest county. So, you know, aside from Milwaukee, we were kind of spearheading that. So I started in the military. I started getting the exposure to IT. And then in my civilian job, I got exposure to IT. Well. On the military side of the house. They had a vacant legal administrator position with the JAG office, and that's a warrant officer position. And they selected me to become a warrant officer and I went off to warrent officer basic course in Fort Rucker, Alabama in 1995. And once I was appointed as a warrant, I then went to the Pentagon for Warrant Officer Advance course to take all the coursework for legal administrator. And what a legal administrator does for a law office is you're responsible for all personnel, administration and IT for that law. 

ANDERSON: Wow. Okay. 

LETTO: So, you switch from being that paralegal focused on the law part to personnel management administration and IT. So now I'm getting the IT experience, the functional side IT at the courthouse as I'm helping stand the systems up. Because during that time I also stood up, converted from what was called CSDS, which was the receiving and dispersing application for the state to the new kid system at that time. So we had to switch gears there and upgrade systems there. And then I, you know, did the CCAP system. 

ANDERSON: So, how how long were you in Alabama and then Washington? 

LETTO: I was in Alabama for four weeks and I was in Washington for four weeks. Well, two weeks in Washington, then two weeks at the JAG School on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: So you're seeing the IT component starting to come in here because part of the advanced course training for warrant was building servers, building computers, setting up networks, setting up printers, maintaining all of that. Okay. So I was getting note on both sides. I came back. I was a warrant officer for the JAG office. At, in Madison over at Department of Military Affairs. And I was the only legal administrator in the state of Wisconsin. Okay? So my military career was going well. My civilian career was going well. I got to know the one of the IT Officers at military affairs, and he was the director of the Legislative Technology Services Bureau for the state legislature, and he needed a businessman. And he offered me a job and I took it. And I went from Waukesha County Clerk court's office to now be the IT business manager for the legislature. Their IT shop. And during my time there, I moved to also heading up software development for the legislative bill drafting system because I had done such a good job with the business side of the house and trained somebody else to do it, because I started wanted to get more of an IT track. So then I became the supervisor of the bill drafting system, and on the same same thing side with the military, I was still, you know, doing all the legal administrative stuff that I needed to do there. Nothing exciting. It was, again, primarily I mean, we had, you know, there were some F-16 crashes that we investigated during that time. And there was some, you know, what I was doing was, I was focused a lot on making sure our legal specialists were trained and that we were getting them engaged with the JAG offices and with the JAG officers and really kind of building that culture. That was the biggest focus I had there. 

ANDERSON: Right. Are you living in Madison, then? 

LETTO: No, I'm. 

ANDERSON: You're doing a lot of, a lot of commuting? 

LETTO: Yeah. So, when I was in Waukesha, I lived in Juneau. We had a home in Juneau. 

ANDERSON: okay. 

LETTO: And when I went to Madison, I had a home in Juneau up until '99. And then in 2000 we built a new home in Beaver Dam. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: We bought some property seven and a half acres and built a home on it. So. So, yeah. So, I was with the legislature for two and a half years, and during that time it was incredible. We put laptops on the assembly and Senate floor for the first time in the history of Wisconsin. We put new voting boards up in both the Assembly and the Senate. We ran all new network cabling and brought their systems all up to code in all what needed to be at our time. 

ANDERSON: Wow. 

LETTO: So it was it was a pretty cool time. I can remember, you know, being, being in the the assembly balconies during sessions, you know, 3:00 in the morning, making sure all the systems are running. And, you know, it was a pretty neat time to be there. We did a lot in two years. We accomplished a lot in two years and we worked a lot and we had a lot of fun. You know, I was there for 1999 to 2000. 

ANDERSON: I was just going to ask. 1999, Okay. 

LETTO: Yup. I was there from 1999, 2000. So, my career progressed kind of on parallel tracks, right? I was doing well in the military, continued to rise in the rank as a legal administrator and doing really well there. And my civilian career was taken a similar track. 

ANDERSON: Are you still going back to Milwaukee then for Guard? 

LETTO: No, I was, I was at Department of Military Affairs. 

ANDERSON: Here in Madison. Okay. 

LETTO: Okay. Yeah. The guard was all Military Affairs. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay. 

LETTO: So in 2001, I took a job at Department of Administration heading up all of the development for a new case management system that was called Protect that was being rolled out for district attorneys across the state of Wisconsin. When I joined the team, we had two counties. When I left, we had seventy.

ANDERSON: Wow. 

LETTO: That's a lot of them. I deployed to Iraq in 2005. I was a CW3, Chief Warrant Officer 3. I had volunteered because in the position that I was in, I would never deploy. And, we had at that time, now we were able to secure a warrant officer position at the 32nd Brigade. Another legal administrator and I had been mentoring somebody. So Miguel Flores got that job. That's the guy I had been mentoring. But because my position was at the state level, I would never deploy. And I had a lot of soldiers deploying and coming back with combat experience and it bothered me a lot not having combat experience. Okay? How could I lead them, right, if I hadn't filled their shoes. That that that was that's my philosophy. If you're going to lead them, you've got to be able to to do what they do. So, I volunteered for a position with detainee operations in Iraq. I was good friends with the warrant officer, the court J Corps. There's only 160 of us in the J Corps. So it's a small community. We all pretty much know each other in that span Reserves Guard and Active Force, 160. So I worked with her and I was the, I was one of the first warrant officers, National Guard warrant officers to fill an active duty billet in that capacity. So I went over there and basically our mission, I was part of what's called Task Force 134. We were stood up after the Abu Ghraib scandal to make sure that the United States was abiding by international law as it pertains to the treatment of detainees. We had never really fought a war before where they were not uniformed, you know, soldiers. These were criminals based on international law. Okay. They didn't have a country representing them and they didn't wear a uniform. So all the laws around POWs don't apply. So, we effectively were there to stay and help stand up the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. And we were also there to conduct what's called combined review and release boards. And we had 15,000 plus detainees at Abu Ghraib Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper. 

ANDERSON: 15,000? 

LETTO: Over 15,000 detainees, including Saddam Hussein, and a large number of the Duck 52. Our youngest detainee was a 13-year-old that kept, every time we released her, she'd go back out and set IEDs up again. So my job as a legal administer was all the personnel administration, right. So I had 40 to 42 people in the JAG office that were spread between Abu Ghraib Prison, the Green Zone, the palace downtown, and and then Baghdad International Airport. I was out of Baghdad International Airport, but we conducted the combined review and release boards down at the um, down in the Green Zone at the mission. The Iraqi. The word is escaping me right now. I'm sorry. It was the Iraqi ministry officials. So at their ministry building is where we conducted the CRAP boards. So I traveled five days a week up and down Route Irish, because, again, I'm not going to lead people when I don't go with them. I'm not going to choose who's going every day and not be with them. And the memorable. 

ANDERSON: Was, did that make you nervous? 

LETTO: I was scared to death the first time I went out. Yeah. Scared to the. 

ANDERSON: Can we go? Okay, so. 

LETTO: Yeah. You just. And you just tell me what questions you want to ask. I'll just ramble. 

ANDERSON: It's a matter of. Okay. I have this whole list in my head, So it's. What? What is this? 2003? I think you said this is 2005. Then you go home and say, Hi, honey. I volunteered for Iraq. I mean, how did I did that conversation? 

LETTO: She and I have been talking. Okay. And I told her there was an opportunity. And I explained to her kind of what I explained to you, obviously in much more detail. We had conversations and she was supportive.  

ANDERSON: Okay. She's got two kids at home, right? 

LETTO: Yup. She's got two kids at home. So. So that, you know, to be honest with you, I think that was one of the cracks in our marriage that ultimately lead to us being divorced. After 31 years, I think that was one of the cracks with me. But the problem is she never communicated with me how she felt. She was she was a pretty introverted person. And she never really told me how she felt. So I always thought she was just incredibly supportive. 

ANDERSON: So it's one thing for a nice Lutheran boy from Wisconsin to go to Germany. What's it like for a father of two from Wisconsin to go to Iraq? 

LETTO: At 40 years old. 

ANDERSON: At 40 years old. 

LETTO: It was one of the most, it was one of two incredible events in my life. I mean, we were, I was a part of the legal process that ultimately tried and sentenced Saddam Hussein. I mean, it was the court system that we were setting up that ultimately tried him. I saw. I saw the work we were doing over there. And I believed in the work we were doing over there. I think what we did, whether you agree with how we went there and all that kind of stuff, I'm not counting that. The, what the soldiers did over there for the Iraqi people was amazing. Okay. 

ANDERSON: In what way? 

LETTO: In my opinion. 

ANDERSON: In what way? 

LETTO: You know. Trying to set an environment of freedom up for them so that they could enjoy what we enjoy. Incredibly challenging because of all the different, you know, the Shiites, the Sunnis, the Kurds, you know, and the clashes in religion. But when I look at the soldiers and the work that they were doing, you know what I saw? That doesn't mean every single thing being done over there was good. What I saw through my lens, we were doing very good work. You know, the way we treated, after the Abu Ghraib scandal, the way we treated those detainees versus the Iraqi and other countries, was very notable. Okay. Because most of you don't realize the Abu Ghraib prison. There are two prisons there. There was an American prison and an Iraqi prison. And part of the process, once they were convicted, was to parade them over to the Iraqi side. And they were kicking and screaming because they didn't want to go from our custody to Iraqi custody because we took good care of them. We provided good food, air conditioning, things like that. The Iraqi side, they didn't know if they were going to live or not. 

ANDERSON: And why did they have to move? 

LETTO: Because it's, because they were tried and convicted by the Iraqis. So at that point, they're no longer in the custody of the United States. They moved to the custody and detainment facilities of the Iraqi prison. 

ANDERSON: What was? There are a lot of a lot of questions. When you said 15,000, I don't think most people are aware it was that high a number. 

LETTO: The last the highest count that I recall was like 15,600 plus. 

ANDERSON: Okay. And what happened to most of those prisoners? 

LETTO: After I left, I, I don't know. No, I don't know.  

ANDERSON: Wow. And how long were you there? 

LETTO: I was there six months. 

ANDERSON: What was daily life like? I mean, you are--.

LETTO: It's a grind. 

ANDERSON: You you you are in a protected barracks, I assume? 

LETTO: Yes and no. I was on camp. I was on Camp Victory. 

ANDERSON: Camp Victory. Okay. 

LETTO: And I slept in a trailer at night. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I get up at 6:00 in the morning, have breakfast, go to the JAG office. We'd assemble, and then we'd convoy down Route Irish to Green Zone, which was very memorable on multiple occasions. And we get to the Green Zone. We conduct the boards all day, and then we drive back and get up and do it again the next day. There were days that I did not go what I called downrange, but the, I would say probably 70% of the time I went downrange. While I was at the, while I was in the Green Zone, I would occasionally be part of the boards. I couldn't, I was not the attorney and paralegals doing the case filing files. So I would use that opportunity for me to be able to to effectively do all the administrative and supplies and things like that. So I quite often would go over to the Republican Palace and work with the JAG officers and JAG and supply officers and all that over there. Every time we moved between BIOP and anywhere, unless we were flying, we had NP escorts because. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: We had, the insurgency was, were going out of their way trying to stop us from doing what we were doing. At one point, RSJ had a hundred thousand dollar bounty on his head. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: Yeah. At the time he was Colonel Beck. He's now he retired as General Beck, a reservist out of, I want to say, South Carolina. So, I mean, we, I, I've earned the combat action badge. Okay. So. We saw stuff. I flew a fair amount also to Abu Ghraib prison. And saw action there. I saw action on the far back in Victory and I saw action on Route Irish. Interesting. Also, we were responsible for the mujahideen. Do you know who the mujahideen are? 

ANDERSON: No. 

LETTO: They were the Iranian freedom fighters that fought for Saddam Hussein against the Iranians in the Iraq-Iran war in the '70s. They were a terrorist group that was on our terrorist list. And when we invaded and conquered Iraq, they then became on our protected people list. So they were up in, they were up in Ashraf. And we would have to go up there occasionally and meet with them and hear their grievances and things like that, because they were basically on a FOB protected by us. Because like I said, we took over the country, so. And our government was trying to get their people to repatriate, repatriate back to Iran. And a few had, and, you know, they were afraid of being killed off going back to Iran. So it was it was a very interesting, interesting. Dynamic.  

ANDERSON: Wow. Did you have any contact with the non prisoner Iraqi people? What was your perception of the, you know, the the folks over there? 

LETTO: It's not a very good perception. 

ANDERSON: That's okay. 

LETTO: I've never met a more hypocritical people. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: You know. They hide behind the Muslim religion, but they drink, they smoke, they do drugs. They rape boys. They rape women. You know how they treat women. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: Yeah. I don't have a high regard for them. They're filthy. They're filthy, filthy people. But on the other hand, they got invaded and, I don't know. I could not imagine facing the things that they faced. And I, you know, if I was in their shoes, I don't know if I would do the same things. I mean, they defecated in the streets. You just can't get this stuff out of your head. You just can't. And I did meet an interesting gentleman. He was a guy that cleaned my, our building. And he had been in Saddam Hussein's death chamber waiting to be hung. And we invaded and basically saved his life. He obviously liked us. So I met him and I have a photo with him and stuff. And I've got pictures of me in the death chamber and, and I pissed off my NP NCO because I, you know, the, you know, the two hands that hold the swords on his parade field? Most people don't know you can climb up inside there, stick your head out at the where the hand holds the sword. So I got a picture of me sticking my head out of that. And, you know, again, that was the height of the insurgency. So. My NP and my NP, NCO, Staff Sergeant Reno. She was not happy with me. She's someone I keep in contact with today. And I saw her two years ago down in Florida. It was, it was an incredible tour. So, so, I came back from Iraq in July of 2005. I went back to DOA to work at DOA, and they didn't put me in the same position. They had filled that position. So I was then in charge of the application development of what they called general application. So all of the gaming, inventory. Department of Gaming. All of their inventory systems on the gaming devices for all of the casinos and their financial systems. We took care of. We took care of the state website Wisconsin dot gov and a bunch of other applications that were internal to Department of Administration. When I came home, I went, I, I went and got my master's degree. I got a master's in management. Masters of Science of management. 

ANDERSON: I don't. When did you get your undergraduate degree and where? 

LETTO: I got my undergrad from the University of State in New York because of what I basically did was, I would go to college. I went to college while I was in Germany. And that was the early days of online learning, where you have the you didn't have the online part. You had to go to University of Maryland extension, go to University of Texas Extension, and then University of the State of New York under under Regents College would bundle all your credits together for a degree. So I got my undergrad because of all my, because of all of my UW stuff and my stuff from Northwestern College. I got an undergrad in sociology. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: Got a Bachelor of Science in sociology. Okay. So I earned that '93. To finish my masters, my federal GI Bill became, got reactivated when I went on active duty when in Iraq in '05. So because of that, I used that benefit to be able to go to get my master's degree. So I graduated with my master's in 2007. And I went to warrant officer staff course in 2007 back to Fort Rucker, and I made chief warrant officer 4 after that. That would have been 2007. Yeah, 2007 is when I made W-4 and I went to I went to Iraq as W-3. 

ANDERSON: W-3. And what is your master's in? Sociology as well? 

LETTO: No. Masters of Science and management. 

ANDERSON: Oh, Okay. 

LETTO: So it was interesting because when I got back from Iraq and I got my master's degree, I applied for a position at UW Madison and the position was an assistant director position of all of the identity and access management for UW Madison and parts of UW system. And, are you familiar with what identity and access management is? 

ANDERSON: No. 

LETTO: Okay. Basically you put your username and password in and it gets you to all the stuff you're supposed to see and keeps you from the spots that you're not supposed to see. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: Okay. So I headed up that team, which was a staff 22, and I did that for 12 years. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: In Madison. Yeah. And I retired from The National Guard in 2008. In May of 2008. My civilian career was taken off. They eliminated that legal administrator position at 32nd Brigade. So, Miguel, he did that full time. He was a technician during the day and did, you know, was a legal administrator on, on the weekends. But he was a technician in the JAG office there at the Department of Military Affairs. So he had a lot more stake in it than what I had. And it just made sense for me to retire because I had 21 years in at that point and allow him to take my position and continue his career. Okay. Because it would have really kind of messed with his career. And the likelihood of me making C-W5 was not very high, because the only way I could do it is if I took a leave of absence from my civilian job and a significant cut pay to be full time CW-5 at the Officer Affairs Office. And that's not a sacrifice I was interested in doing. So, I ended my career in the military in 2008. Stayed with UW Madison til 2018, where I moved to become the Deputy Chief Information Officer of UW Shared Services at UW System. And I retired from UW system in June of this year. So you can see all those pivotal points in my, my career journey of where I made decisions not realizing the pivotal decisions they were. 

ANDERSON: Absolutely. 

LETTO: And how the components and the legal components and the military service and civilian life all intertwined and interconnected. 

ANDERSON: I have a bunch more questions. We've been at this an hour. Do you need a break or are you doing okay? 

LETTO: I could probably do it for another 15, 20 minutes. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I have a commitment at 3:30. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay, Well, let me find my most important questions. Given the work, all of the work that you were doing, did you ever think about law school and becoming a lawyer? 

LETTO: No. 

ANDERSON: Why not? 

LETTO: Had no interest. I saw how. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: I saw how lawyers behaved. I saw how they operated. I had no interest. I was more. I was more interested in the operational components of things than thinking like a lawyer. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: And that's why I excelled at being a warrant officer. And why I excelled at being an administrator on the civilian side. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I will tell you a very pivotal point for me. Also, I forgot to mention this. A warrant officer advanced course. At Charlottesville at the UVA campus. We took the Myers-Briggs test. I had never taken the Myers-Briggs. And it was a game changer for me because what it did is it showed me that administration was my strong point. And it, I pretty much got back to that my whole career and it got me to where I'm at today because that pointed me in a direction that I could focus on. And I'm, I'm one of those individuals where I can get very laser focused. And I chased that through my whole career and, and 30 years of state service, and 21 years of military service, and I'm 58 and I retired. 

ANDERSON: Well, what are you doing in retirement? Are you involved in the with any of the military? I see you have a VFW cap on. 

LETTO: So I'm the post commander of the Beaver Dam post. I'm the District two adjutant and I am the state junior vice commander. So I will be the VFW state commander in 2527. Okay. So I'm still serving. I'm a servant leader. That's just who I am. I'm also involved in the Beaver Dam Lake Association because I live on Beaver Dam Lake and I'm involved in the a number of nonprofits here in town that focus on, you know, we've got a memorial wall at the local veteran's, local veterans cemetery. We have banners downtown honoring veterans. And so I'm on that committee now, and I just came off a church council, but I did that for nine years, too. 

ANDERSON: So that wouldn't be St Stephen's, would it? 

LETTO: No. St Good Shepherd. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: But I promised myself I was going to take the summer off and just enjoy the lake.

ANDERSON: Did it work? 

LETTO: So that's what I'm doing. I'm taking the summer off. I'll probably. I've got. I've got three opportunities for part time jobs. One is next week. I'm going to do an interview. It's working for an organization called Moore Associates, and they provide IT leadership training. I went through their training program. I sent several of my staff through their training program. So I they've approached me and asked me if I'd be willing to do part time leadership training for for UW system. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: So it'd be like a two day a week thing. So I'm, you know, poking at it, asking and answering questions. 

ANDERSON: Whatever it looks like fun, right? 

LETTO: Yeah. 

ANDERSON: What about on a personal level? Do you stay in touch with any of the, any of the folks that you served with? 

LETTO: I do. 

ANDERSON: You talked about a couple of reunions. 

LETTO: Yeah. Yeah. So I stay in close contact with my Wisconsin National Guard brothers and sisters. One of them is Terry McArdle. He lives up in Baileys Harbor right now. He and I stay in very close contact. But I do see the others occasionally. I stay in very close contact with Miguel Flores, who was a guy that I mentored. He is now the highest ranking Warrant Officer in all of the National Guard. He's at the National Guard. The National Guard Bureau. I pinned his CW-5 on him in May. 

ANDERSON: Wow. That had to feel good. 

LETTO: That's incredible, you know? I helped steer and coach and mentor that young man. And look at where he got. I stay in contact with some of the, some of the guys I was in Germany with. And like I said, we're we're planning a reunion in March. And I stay in contact with a couple of the people from Iraq. And there's a staff sergeant whose name is Rob Bender. He retired from the Marine Corps. I stay in contact with him. And then Rochelle Reno and I, we got in some hotspots, and I keep in contact with her. She's she's an incredible person. And unfortunately, she's she got injured a couple of times. And did multiple tours over there. So she, she can get in a bad place once in a while. 

ANDERSON: It's hard. It's hard. 

LETTO:  Yeah. So, yes, I do keep in contact. 

ANDERSON: Do either of your kids serve? Do they ever show any interest in serving? 

LETTO: No. My youngest daughter was thinking about, was thinking about being, an OCS, not an OCS, what do you call that at the colleges? 

ANDERSON: ROTC. 

LETTO: ROTC. She tried it for two days and it didn't work. 

ANDERSON: Where was she at? Madison? Was she at UW? 

LETTO: She went to Stout and then she finished. She finished at Marine Park and got her associates. My oldest daughter didn't follow my military shoes. She followed Dad's IT track. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: She went to UW Milwaukee. Dad got her in there as a student. They hired her as a full time person. Paid for part of her, part of her college and then turned around, paid for all of her master's program. And she still works in their IT shop today.  

ANDERSON: Wow. So, so, good success as a dad. Good success as a dad. 

LETTO: Not not as, not as a husband. We got divorced in 2020. But. [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX] So there's not much you can do about that. 

ANDERSON: Relative to military career. Would you do it all over again? 

LETTO: Absolutely. It was an incredible journey. 

ANDERSON: I was.

LETTO: How can you? How can you not appreciate being at one of the most historic events in history? 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: You know. And I had eyes on it. 

ANDERSON: Absolutely. 

LETTO: The only thing that would have been better is if I was in Berlin on November 9th. You know, that's the only thing that would have been better. So I would do it all over. There would be decisions I'd do differently. But we all reflect back and say we would do it differently knowing what we know today. I wish I had the knowledge that I have today when I was 21 and over in Germany. 

ANDERSON: Well, that's what wrinkles are for. So they say, Yeah. I will share with you. I threw out a couple of names because I live in Columbus. 

LETTO: You do? 

ANDERSON: Yeah. 

LETTO: So you're not far from me? 

ANDERSON: I'm not. 

LETTO: I go. I go to Jill Rupert Chiropractic over in Fall River. 

ANDERSON: For Pete's sake. No kidding. Wow.

LETTO: Jill and I go back to 2014. She lives on Beaver Dam Lake here. So she's helped out with some of the lake association stuff. Susan Puntillo lives in Columbus. She was one of my division administrators when I was at DOA. I don't know if she's still alive or not, but she lives in Columbus. 

ANDERSON: I used to shop at Nancy's Notions. 

LETTO: Well, you know where, you know, where the VFW or the Veteran's Center is. 

ANDERSON: I do indeed.  I do. 

LETTO: That's where my post is at. 

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay. And well, and I also retired from the UW Foundation. 

LETTO: Okay. 

ANDERSON: Good for you. So I was a 1848 University Avenue. 

LETTO: I know I've been in that building several times. I've met with your, your folks there with regards to the limited IT Services that we could provide because of the foundation versus the university. 

ANDERSON: Yeah, they're separate for several reasons. Yeah. Yeah. So I was there for 12 years. Yeah. 

LETTO: Okay. All right. So you know the campus well. I'll be at the the ball game tomorrow. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We'll see what happens. 

LETTO: Yeah. Yeah. And I'm a meritus for UW system and UW Madison too. 

ANDERSON: Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, That was my school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

LETTO: I'm not an alumni. I'm a meritus. 

ANDERSON: Hey, we're all badgers under the scanner, right? 

LETTO: Yeah. Yeah. 

ANDERSON: Yeah. Well, we'll see what what Coach Fickell can do. I, I, I'm a big Jim Leonard fan, but I'm willing to give the guy a chance, you know? 

LETTO: Yeah. Yeah, that was kind of. I was a little disappointed, but yeah, I got to give the guy a chance. That was not a Bielema fan. 

ANDERSON: Dear Lord. Yeah. 

LETTO: And I had worked on the field on, during some of those. One game a year, I worked on the field. We provided the backup headsets. 

ANDERSON: Really? 

LETTO: Division of Information Technology is where I work. Do it. And so we provided the back up headsets to the coaches. So one guy volunteered for a game every year, and I got to be on the field. 

ANDERSON: What was that like? 

LETTO: That's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. And I was state Commander. I'll probably be able to be on the field for veterans, the Veteran's Day celebration every year, so that'll be fun. 

ANDERSON: Excellent. Yeah, that'll be exciting. Yeah, well, you know, go badgers. Yeah. So, okay, it's quarter after. You have to go, I guess. 

LETTO: Pretty soon. What. What other questions do you have? 

ANDERSON: I think we've, we've pretty much covered it. If, if there's anything else. I mean, that's. that's all I had. Or you got you got a GWOT medal. The Global War on Terrorism medal. Did we talk about that? 

LETTO: Yep. Yep. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I've got Iraqi campaign medal. 

ANDERSON: Okay. 

LETTO: I've got it. You probably can see all that stuff. 

ANDERSON: I think. I think we covered it.