100-year-old World War II veteran's photos saved from flood

The Mazomanie community is coming together to save the photos of a 100-year-old World War II veteran from flood damage.

Chuck Skooglun served in Hawaii for two years during World War II. Throughout his service and his life, he practiced photography. He kept those photos, and other mementos, stored in the garage of a property owned by Michael and Janice Lawler.

When the flooding occurred, the Lawler's property, which they rent out, was impacted. Two feet of water soaked the home, resulting in the complete gutting of the interior of the house.

While they were working on the main house, Skooglun's belongings, which the Lawlers did not know had been stored in the garage, were sitting in water and mud.

"He was storing his stuff out in the garage here, including his photographs," said Mike Lawler. "It was a while before we got to the garage because we didn't realize all of that stuff was in there. So we took what we could immediately rescue, we took and cleaned up his photos as best we could, and dried them."

Despite the state of their own property, the Lawlers separated each of Skooglun's photos and belongings, cleaned them, and laid them out to dry.

In doing so, they found old photos, documents, scrapbooks, art, and tea cups, all of which began to paint a picture of Skooglun's life.

"That's what became the most emotional and probably made it so that we really wanted to do something, because of the fact that you really did almost start to figure out who this man was," said Janice Lawler.

Volunteers from the community came out to help separate and hang dry the photos, and a local high school student also began taking photos of each salvaged picture in order to deliver a clean copy to Skooglun.

With some salvaged photos in hand, Michael Lawler visited Skooglun at his nursing home, where Skooglun shared why he keeps all of his photos.

"Well I guess for one reason I took them, and the other, it brings back memories," said the 100-year-old veteran.

Memories especially of his time in Hawaii.

"I was there for two years," Skooglun said. "When it rains, it doesn't rain like it rains here, it's like it poured a bucket of water on you."

From buckets of rain in Hawaii to a flood in Mazomanie, Skooglun's photos, and memories, have survived the waters.