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Army 1st. Lt. Nick Dewhirst, of Onalaska, left, and Army Reserve Sgt. Daniel Thompson, of Portage, are the two Wisconsin soldiers killed in combat since last Memorial Day. Lisa Thompson's only child was one of the Wisconsin soldiers who have died since last Memorial Day. A bomb exploded under Army Reserve Sgt. Daniel T. Thompson's Humvee on Feb. 24 in Afghanistan. His mother has turned his room in Portage into a shrine of photos and mementoes. The military used the wooden chest at the end of the bed to ship home his belongings. Lisa Thompson and two family members have had themselves tattooed in Daniel's memory. Lisa Thompson of Portage was extremely close with her son, Daniel Thompson. She let him make his own decisions, including one to sign an eight-year military contract when he was 17, even though she hated being apart from him. Her son died in Afghanistan on Feb. 24. He is one of two Wisconsin residents who were killed in combat since last Memorial Day. The other is 1st. Lt. Nick Dewhirst, of Onalaska.
Army Reserve Sgt. Daniel Thompson served six years in the Wisconsin National Guard and would have finished a two-year stint in the reserves in December. Lisa Thompson was a single parent raising her son, Daniel, for 12 years before he gave her away at the ceremony for her second marriage to her current husband, Bob Thompson. 1st Lt. Nick Dewhirst was killed on July 20 when his convoy was ambushed in a remote mountain pass. In part because her father had died in the military, Susan Dewhirst said she questioned her son's decision to attend the U.S. Military Academy, but she has always been proud of him. Her son, Nick Dewhirst, graduated from West Point in 2006. He died in an ambush in Afghanistan on July 20.
Nick Dewhirst, right, and Adam Servais were childhood friends and graduates of Onalaska High School before being killed while on military assignments in Afghanistan. Senior Airman Servais, 23, of Onalaska, died Aug. 19, 2006.      
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