By Nick LaFave, FOX 21 News
with photojournalist John Thain

PROCTOR - Sunday is Flag Day.  A day honoring the adoption of our nation's most recognizable symbol.  As we do so, we can also honor those who fought for that flag of freedom. 

One such man is Wilmer 'Bud' Wagner.  Who took his everyday experiences from World War II and shared them with anyone who wished to know.

Bud Wagner tends to the garden at his daughter's home nearly every day.

"Four or five hours, depending."

Bud knows what he's doing.  The Hermantown native grew up on his father's potato farm.

"I'm one of the few people left who can say I owned a team of workhorses when I was 17 before I owned my first car."

At age 21, Bud left that life.  He enlisted in the army in 1941.  Then left for World War II, fighting in North Africa and Italy.

"Along Tunisian, the Battle of Hill 609, those places.  But, we did chase Hitler out of Africa."

Three years, six months and 28 days Bud was away from home.  Events more than half a century old - but, still with Bud today.  Because he chronicled every moment of it.  Writing wherever and whenever he could.

"By the blackout light of my jeep... or in broad daylight.  The places are too numerous to mention."

Diaries weren't technically allowed by the military.  But, Bud didn't care.
He'd kept one his entire life.

"And just because I was going in the army, I didn't want to quit because I figured it would be an opportune time to get some real action in there.  And it was."

He wrote down everything.  From the mundane to the tragic.  Including friends he'd lost.

"One of those was really close, I can say i don't care to talk about it.  Cause, I say he died while I was holding him.  Gasping his last breath.  Which is sad."

And, he photographed as much as possible.  With an 'Eastern 8 to 8' which saw every mile he did.

"It fell out a few times and it cracked.  It still took good pictures."

After the war, Bud came home to Northern Minnesota.  Married his wife, Evelyn and had a family.  The diary entries sat in a drawer for decades.  His kids wanted him to do something with them.  But, Bud says he was busy raising a family.

"So, I never really got started on it until my wife got alzheimer's and I started taking care of her in 1988."

Bud spent his time caring for Evelyn and working on his diaries when he could.
Surprisingly, there was a lot he had to research about his own past.

"I didn't know the name of the battles, the amount of casualties we had.  And I know some of the people who were killed, but not all of them."

The product of Bud's efforts: A book of more than 100,000 words.  Words he put to paper as he was thinking them more than 50 years ago.

Filled with Bud's diary entries and photographs, "And There Shall Be Wars" was published in 2000.

"Just a month or two after she passed away."

Sunday - Flag Day - is Bud's birthday.  90 years old.  A life chronicled with words and pictures.  But, a life yet unfinished.  The garden at his daughter's still needs tending.

"And it's been real good for me, because I don't know what I would've done all that time otherwise."

If you would like to purchase a copy of Bud Wagner's "And There Shall Be Wars," go to www.savpress.com