It is with deep sorrow we announce the passing of a mighty warrior and community friend. We just found out that Dennis “Denny” Theesfield of Armstrong, Iowa passed away.
Denny was the very first veteran I photographed for my brand new Portrait of a Veteran Photo Project. It was a very warm, early September morning back in 2015.

I will always remember sitting around the family kitchen table, with coffee and cookies offered by his wife Sharon. His smile and willingness to recall his time in the military, and his patience as I sweated and fumbled in a hot machine shed with strobes and camera settings to get the perfect image of this brave warrior.

In case you hadn't had a chance to read his story, I offer it once again.

Dennis “Denny” Theesfield
1945 - 2017
Combat Wounded Vietnam Vet.
Born in Fenton, Iowa 1945

Iowa native Dennis Theesfield was 24 year-old farmer working the family acreage when he was drafted into the U.S. Army July 2, 1968. They shipped him out to Fort Lewis in Washington State for basic training, then on to Fort Benning, Georgia to attend NCO school.
After a stint in Fort Polk, Louisiana, the Army sent him back to Fort Lewis to wait out his orders to ship out. He headed to Vietnam in 1969 arriving at Cam Ranh Bay with an E-6 rating. He was stationed at Củ Chi Base Camp (also known as Củ Chi Army Airfield) in the Củ Chi District northwest of Saigon in southern Vietnam. Theesfield had only been in 'Nam about three months when, on October 25th 1969, while leading a squad of soldiers with the 32 Bravo Infantry, was critically injured after a landmine exploded where he and another soldier were walking.
“We should have died,” he recalls. He and the other soldier were airlifted out, strapped into a stretcher hanging from the outside of a medivac helicopter and taken to a Quonset hut field hospital. “It's was just like you see on (the television show) M*A*S*H. He survived, but was left paralyzed from his injuries. He still carried a piece of the mine's shrapnel lodged in his spine.

He received a medical discharge from the Army in May of 1970 and came back home to the farm and community he was born and raised in. Theesfield soon was back working at the local hardware store and back on the tractor, even though confined to a wheelchair. “I farmed for 24 years out of a wheel chair,” Theesfield states matter-of-factly. With the help of neighbors and friends, Theesfield devised ways to lift himself off his wheelchair and up into the tractor seat using an electric winch, chain and straps. Others helped adapt the controls of the tractor and combine to allow him to operate them without help. Nowadays, his wife Sharon and his nephews help farm and maintain the heritage 80 acres.
“I loved the service,” Theesfields said proudly. “I'd go back again right now if I could.” But, he adds, the U.S. politicians “wouldn't let us fight,” a common complaint voiced by many Vietnam veterans. “There was a lot of things we couldn't do over there. That war would have been over a lot sooner if we could have fought it they way we should have,” the wounded warrior said.
Theesfield was actively involved with the Armstrong, Iowa Post of the Veterans of Foriegn Wars (VFW) and a member of many other veteran's groups and organizations.
Please take a moment with me to honor the life of this local American Hero.
If you are a veteran, or know of a veteran who is from Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa, please let me know. I would like to honor as many our area vets as I can with a portrait session. The pictures will be included into a photographic image collection that I hope to turn into a book honoring those who have served... our area military heroes.
There is no cost involved for our veterans, other than an hour or so of their time. Please contact me through this blog or email: josephkreissphotography@gmail.com