Name of Hero: Craig Birkholz

Hero City: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Submitted by: Rick Poggenburg

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=greenbaypressgazette&sParam=36111913.story

Hundreds pay respects to fallen Wis. officer
Posted 3/26/2011 11:10 PM ET

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — With many saluting in silence, hundreds of mourners watched Saturday as the casket of a Wisconsin police officer was carried into a church and remembered the war veteran as a hero who always put others first.
Fond du Lac Police Officer Craig Birkholz was killed in a shootout March 20 with a suspect who eventually committed suicide. His partner, Officer Ryan Williams, was shot twice in the chest but survived.

Birkholz’s death devastated his hometown of Kenosha, where residents said he was a quiet person who led by example.

“I’m here for what he did for all of us,” Nate Lawler, who was the high school wrestling team with Birkholz, said while braving a bitterly cold wind to pay his final respects as a funeral procession crept by. “He put his life on the line to keep us safe. He’s a hero.”

“There was no greater man than him,” added Randy Webb, who had known Birkholz since he was 5 years old. “He was always the one who put everyone else in front of his own needs. He was a protector.”

Hundreds lined the funeral route as a procession of emergency vehicles slowly drove by with their lights flashing. Pallbearers withdrew the casket from the hearse and carried it into a church as mourners, standing 20 rows deep on each side, saluted.

The family requested that media not attend the funeral.

Birkholz, 28, had served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq after joining the military following his graduation from Tremper High School in 2000. When later earned a degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

He was using his position as a police officer as a springboard to a higher-profile job such as a U.S. Marshal or an FBI agent.

“I think he had a lot of what he wanted to do figured out at 17,” family friend Jim Katich recalled. “He always knew what he wanted to do.”

Authorities said Birkholz died after being shot in the upper chest by 30-year-old James Cruckson. Williams, the officer who was wounded, was released from the hospital Friday, and doctors said the 33-year-old made a “phenomenal” recovery. A police dog also was critically injured in the shooting.

Submitted by: Colleen Ouellette

On November 30th 2003 the most unimaginable happened. At 827pm the lives of my four children and their father were taken from me.

I have to this day always thought about the first responders that had to be there. When realizing that there were 4 children ages 17, 16, 13, and 9 in the vehicle once they were able to get the tractor trailer off. Their hearts racing but still standing strong, there was nothing they could have done.

Now how do we give the mother of these children this news?

I just wanted to take this opportunity and say THANK YOU.

Submitted by: Jen

Two years ago I joined my town’s rescue squad and met volunteers of all ages. One of the volunteers was jokingly introduced as the legend. Shrugging it off to an inside joke, I let it go.

After a few months of getting to know the history of the squad I noticed a trend in recent pictures, the ‘legend’ was in most if not all of them. Starting at late teenage years to present mid thirties. He rose in rank from junior squad to senior member and is well on his way to being one of the dinosaurs. Most of the members in his generation had quit during first five years but he endured and continued to volunteer.

I was lucky enough to ride a few shifts and see him at work. Regardless of the hour the bell rang the grumpy burned out legend would get up and get moving. His interaction with patients always compassionate and always professional. The trust he has earned with paramedics in two separate states is witnessed immediately watching the interaction during patient care transfer.

To hear the war stories, you can only wonder how he continued. These aren’t just 9-1-1 calls, these are friends and their families calling for help. He’s been there when close friends lost their loved ones, was a shoulder to cry on and showed up for his next shift. I’ve had the honor to know and love this man for a year and I enjoy nothing more than when we are out in public and someone walks up wide-eyes saying,”jeesh Stites you’re still on the squad!”

Submitted by: Rinda Scheltens

I have no actual story to submit, just a thought. I don’t think people are heroes because they are firefighters. I think they are firefighters because they are heroes. The need to help others is already within them. And for that I admire and respect them.