Army National Guard Armory: Sussex
May 11, 1989 – Whitefish Bay – Village residents may get some relief by 1991 from noise, traffic and parking problems they say are created by the Wisconsin National guard quartered at the armory at 1225 E. Henry Clay St….The Sussex Village Board approved a proposal Tuesday night that will permit the Guard to build on land in the Town of Lisbon that the village will buy and annex.
—
Army National Guard gets OK to use Lisbon quarry site
by Carol Wahlen of The Milwaukee Journal staff, Nov. 3, 1989
Lisbon – The Wisconsin Army National Guard has received approval to conduct training exercises on 70 acres at the Halquist Stone Co. quarry here.
In a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Plan Commission said had no objection to the Guard’s operation, but said that the panel reserved the right to re-evaluate its position if any problems arose. Action by the Town Board is not required.
Perry Halquist, president of the stone quarry company, has agreed to let the Guard use the land both north and south of the firm’s offices at N52 W23564 Lisbon Rd. (Highway K) for 10 years, with the option to extend that period.
Lt. Col. Ron Luebke, a National Guard representative, said the Guard had contacted area residents to explain the exercises and to let them know that no live ammunition would be used.
He said that not all of the neighbors had been reached, but that those who had been had no objection to the training exercises.
Luebke compared the type of training to that of an Air Force ground crew preparing a jet for emergency take off.
Luebke said the Guard training crews would be preparing three or four howitzers for action during training exercise to be held during the day on weekends.
Two Guard units, which have been stationed in Whitefish bay, are relocating to Sussex. The Guard plans to build a $4 million armory on 15 acres east pf Maple Ave. the two un its will be in temporary quarters in Sussex until the new armory is completed in October 1991.
Supervisor Jane Stadler, a Plan Commission member, questioned how the heavy military equipment would be moved between the armory and the quarry.
Luebke said one plan would use a trail between the quarry and the armory. He said that if the trail did not work, the equipment would be driven over roads.
He said the equipment, which has rubber tires, would not harm pavement. Luebke said that the equipment already had participated in two Sussex parades, and that there had been no damage to streets.
—
Sussex: New Armory for Guard is now unlikely
In 2 years, just 1 local resident has joined.
Sussex – The future looks dim for the Wisconsin Army National Guard here.
Not only are plans to build a $3 million armory virtually dead in the water, but military officials are wondering whether there is enough local interest to warrant having a National Guard unit stationed in Sussex.
“Recruiting isn’t what we thought it would be,” said Lt. Col. Ronald Luebke, a National Guard representative who was instrumental in bringing the 121st Field Artillery unit to Sussex.
“Only one local man has joined the guard in the two years we’ve been in Sussex.”
Luebke said 200 National Guard members had been transferred to Sussex initially, but that 100 of them had been sent back to the Whitefish Bay Armory because of the crowding in Sussex..
The National Guard is sharing the former Village Hall, N63 W23626 Silver spring Drive, with the local Teen Center. Plans had called for building a $3 million armory. However, Luebke said it was unlikely the armory would be built in view of military cutbacks.
“It doesn’t make sense to build a new armory when there will be a lot of vacant armories,” Luebke said.
Luebke said the National Guard was disappointed with the response from local citizens when it came to joining the National Guard, but that it had been impressed with the outdoor training area provided by Halquist Quarry in Sussex. He said he planned to meet with local officials to determine what can be done to let people know that the National Guard is a worthwhile organization.
Luebke apparently will have no trouble convincing the Village Board that the Guard is worthy.
At a recent meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution urging Congress to reject any proposed cuts in troop levels of the Wisconsin National Guard and Reserve levels, noting that the proposed cutbacks would result in a loss of $35 million in federal expenditures and 6,500 military positions in the state of Wisconsin.
Source: The Milwaukee Journal, Aug. 26, 1992
—
The Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 10, 1992 – The Wisconsin Army National Guard will continue to lease a building here (Sussex).
The Village Board voted this week to renew a $38,000 lease allowing the National Guard to use the former Village Hall…
When the Guard moved into the former Village hall three years ago, there were plans for building a $3 million armory in 1992. The Village Board was so enthusiastic about those plans that it annexed 15 acres of land from the Town of Lisbon, and donated the land to the Guard for the armory site.
However, peace got in the way of those plans when the Soviet Union crumbled and the Cold War ended. There was no money in the federal defense budget to build an armory this year, or next.
—
Armory may move from Bay to Sussex
Author: LAWRENCE SUSSMAN
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel staff, June 14, 1993
US Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. is pushing for congressional approval to appropriate more than $3 million this summer to build an armory to house the 121st Field Artillery in Sussex.
If the Menomonee Falls Republican congressman is successful, bids for the armory are tentatively scheduled to be opened Aug. 18, and the new three-building site could be ready by next summer, according to Col. Andy Miller, director of facilities for the Wisconsin National Guard. The…
—
Sussex armory gains soldiers in shuffle
Article from: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI) Article date: October 21, 1996
Twenty-one additional Wisconsin National Guard members will be reporting for duty in Sussex this month as the last phase of a five-year unit reorganization in 13 Wisconsin cities comes to an end.
Fifty soldiers from a field artillery unit of the 121st Infantry in the Sussex armory will be moved to the Oconomowoc armory. At the same time, 71 soldiers from the Oconomowoc armory’s field artillery unit, Battery C, will be moved to the Sussex armory. The result: a larger number of…
—
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Sept. 9, 1997 – So many people had a blast at the first Dozer Day on Saturday at the Halquist Stone Co. quarry in sussex…Enhancing the quarry theme, the Wisconsin Army National Guard, which has an armory in Sussex, provided 300 volunteers and numerous pieces of military equipment.
November 1998, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: While other area communities are struggling with finding sites for skateboard and in-line skating rinks, a new rink is about to open in the village, thanks to the donations of two area businesses. An outdoor rink the size of a football field is nearly complete at the village’s new Armory Park, W237 N5678 Maple Ave., and will be ready for ice skaters as soon as temperatures dip enough to freeze water in the shallow, bowl-shaped basin, said Village Trustee Michael Knapp.
Attached to the basin is a 30-by-40-foot flat area for in-line skaters and skateboarders, Knapp said. Vulcan Materials Co., which operates the Vulcan Quarry in Sussex, donated the materials and all the services except the engineering for the rink.
The rink is one of the first major structures in the park that is under construction in front of the Wisconsin National Guard Armory. Little league-size baseball diamonds and soccer fields also are being built.
more
—
Sussex – The Sussex Soccer Club will mark the grand opening of the Amory Park soccer fields with a celebration Saturday. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Sept. 20, 1999
—
March 15, 2006, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
The Wisconsin National Guard 1st Battalion, 121st Field Artillery, headquartered in Milwaukee (including the battery at Sussex) was ordered to report for duty April 19 for an expected one-year deployment overseas. The unit will undergo several months of training in Mississippi.
—
Sussex 108th Forward Support Company ordered mobilized. Sept. 9, 2008