When Mark Buchmann found a treasure trove of images, awards and documents associated with his great-uncle Werner Bernet, he thought to himself, "What the heck is this?" Buchmann, 58, a U.S. Navy veteran, was recently going through items following the mother's sale of her home in the northern suburbs of Chicago. He located old boxes set aside by his father, who died 16 years ago, including myriad photos of Bernet along with military medals plus various documents showing his service history. And it's quite a unique tale: Bernet served in both World War 1, for the Swiss military; and in World War II, for the United States. "I thought it was amazing since I had no idea about the World War I aspect to it," Buchmann told Military.com. "I knew he had been in the Coast Guard in the U.S. but I did not know the longevity of his time in the Coast Guard. He also did Coast Guard Reserves after being discharged from active duty in the Coast Guard, until about 1950."
A photo showing a document depicting Werner Bernet's Swiss war participation in 1914. (Mark Buchmann)
Buchmann told Military.com that if his 87-year-old mother wasn't selling her home, he would have eventually found the memorabilia. He was happy to discover it all when he did, though. "I had no idea he had served that much and had given back to his adopted country as much as he did. And then finding the stuff on World War I just blew my mind. How do you find someone who served in two different world wars for two different countries? That just was crazy. It was a very incredibly proud moment, but also just mind-blowing."
