(serene music) - When you live in a town like Appleton, and you can drive down the streets, and you can actually put together the history of the veterans that served, and their families, is absolutely a great honor.

- After World War II, our mayor at that time, Bob Miller, figured out that men lost and the streets were almost equal, so he proposed to the city council that the streets be named after these men who had died.

It was renamed in 1947, so it'd be World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and one from Iraq, Jesse, was the last one we lost.

- Jesse was my soldier.

I talked him into joining the National Guard so he could have money to go to college.

- I did serve with Jesse for a number of years here, and then we deployed together, and then unfortunately, he was killed in action over in Baghdad, Iraq, on the 21st of February, 2005.

- He was, he was like a son to me, and I escorted his remains back to Appleton.

- I actually was able to come home from overseas, and meet with the family, and actually be present when they dedicated that street to Jesse.

It means a whole lot to me.

- To our knowledge, there is no other town in the United States that honors their veterans who died in service by renaming their streets.

- And that's quite an accomplishment on the part of Appleton, and that shows a lot of pride.

(gentle rhythmic music) - We always knew the streets were named after these men, but we never had a face to go with that name, so when I came up with the idea, that was the goal, to get that face with the name.

(gentle rhythmic music) We are at the site of the Streets of Honor, the portraits, here in Appleton, Minnesota.

I just came up with this idea of painting portraits.

I'm not sure how I thought I could do it.

I've never done portraits.

The portraits were painted by myself and a friend of mine, Katia Andreeva, so we painted, and worked together, and talked about 'em, and it was a important time, and I know Katia still, she comes out to see her guys.

It's just something that you can't help it, you just get attached to 'em and you know their story.

(serene rhythmic music) - We've got a very interesting Veterans Memorial on the north end of Main Street that is depicting the pride and the honor of the Red Bull and of the soldiers that have served in this area.

- The pin on my coat is the Red Bull.

It's for the Red Bull Division of the Minnesota Army National Guard, one of the elite fighting groups in World War II, and they were also deployed in Iraq.

- It's actually called the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, and that was started during World War II when the soldiers from the state of Minnesota were all mobilized and the National Guard of Minnesota, the Red Bull, was the first division that went overseas to fight in World War II, prior to any Marines, prior to the active duty Army, it was National Guard from Minnesota.

(upbeat music) (solemn music) - Every year, we do the Memorial Day program, which is done by AMVETS, and we will be putting up, a little over 100 flags go up in the flags that are on our site.

(gentle rhythmic music) - We got a little over about 105 casket flags that have been donated for our flags of honor.

(gentle rhythmic music) - After the flags are generally set up, then a bunch of us meet, then we go out to the cemetery and we make sure all the veterans out there have flags put on their veteran stars, and if the stars need repair, we try to repair 'em right then and there.

Otherwise, we get 'em repaired to ensure that they are honored.

(serene music) Living here in Appleton and all the streets being named after veterans means a lot.

It still shows that the public still cares, and they're very much supportive here in this community.

(serene music) - This project has definitely been a community effort, and so the journey has been pretty... It's been longer and harder than I thought, but definitely worth it, so hopefully, we never have to rename a street.

- To me, it's almost a tear-jerking display of soldiers who sacrificed their life for our freedom, and that it's gonna be an ongoing legacy now we've got the pictures and the stories of those soldiers who were willing to sacrifice that much for our freedom.

(serene music) - Makes you feel kinda proud.

It does.

(serene music)