Gordon M. Chayka

Gordon Martin Chayka was born January 18, 1917, in Monroe, Wisconsin, the son of Otto and Margaret Chayka. He grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Washington High School in 1934. Before entering military service, he worked for the Motor Transport Company in Milwaukee.

On March 29, 1941, Chayka married Marian Olson of Stoughton. Their son, Thomas, was born before Gordon entered the U.S. Army on January 11, 1943. After training in California and at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, Chayka was sent overseas on January 20, 1944. He eventually attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in the European Theater with Headquarters Intelligence of XX Corps under Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, part of General George S. Patton's Third Army.

One of the most remarkable surviving records of Chayka's wartime service is not an official military document, but a letter he wrote from the German front to his young son.

In the early morning hours of March 6, 1945, Gordon sat down somewhere in Germany to write to Tommy, whose second birthday was approaching. He told his son that while Tommy and his mother slept safely at home, American soldiers were standing guard in the cold and wet thousands of miles away.

He explained something incredibly difficult in words intended for a two-year-old child. Tommy's birthday present that year, Gordon wrote, was not something he could wrap and send home. It was:

“A safe bed, a happy home, the best mother in the world.”

Gordon also enclosed a small silver Cross of Lorraine that had been given to him by a Frenchman. He told Tommy that the Frenchman's own little boy had been killed during the war and that the cross represented “freedom and life and hope for little guys like you.”

The letter ended simply, with a father's longing to be home:

“May we spend the next one together. Give my love to Mommy. She means the world to both of us. Your Dad.”

The letter was published in the local newspaper in April 1945 under the headline “Birthday Letter Comes From German Front.” It provides a deeply personal glimpse into what the war meant to Chayka—not simply as a soldier, but as a husband and young father separated from his family.

Chayka survived the war and returned home. He was discharged from the Army on November 1, 1946, after nearly four years of military service.

Back in Stoughton, Chayka joined the city's police department. His appointment as a police officer was approved by the Stoughton Fire and Police Commission, beginning another period of public service. He remained with the department until resigning after difficulties created by split-shift scheduling during a shortage of police officers.

Chayka also became active in American Legion Otis Sampson Post 59. In June 1948, he was elected Post Commander, succeeding Clyde C. Knudson. His term corresponded with the 1949 Legion year. One of the major objectives announced for his administration was eliminating the remaining debt on the Legion building, with Post members conducting a fundraising effort to accomplish that goal.

His election also continued the transition of Post 59 leadership to the generation that had recently returned from World War II. Chayka's fellow officers included Oscar Brusegar, Richard Olson, Robert Swingen, Edor Everson, Palmer Henderson, Rolfe Hanson, Mel DuPaul, Edor Everson and Bill Smithheram.

Chayka's career later took him beyond Stoughton. In 1950, he began working for the State of Wisconsin Department of Revenue and Justice Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Division. He retired as chief of that department in 1982. He also served as president of the National Tobacco Taxation Association in 1981 and was a member of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Gordon and Marian raised two children, Thomas and Zimple Lee. In later years their family grew to include grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Gordon Martin Chayka died on February 18, 1990, at the age of 73.

His life included military service in Europe, police work in Stoughton, more than three decades in state law enforcement, and leadership of American Legion Post 59. Yet perhaps the most revealing record he left behind is the letter written from Germany in 1945—a young father trying to explain to his little boy why he was so far from home.

Decades later, Gordon Chayka's words still capture something that military records and lists of assignments cannot: what service and sacrifice meant to the families waiting at home.