Years ago my picker friend learned of an abandoned/doomed for demolition old farm near Chaska.  It turned out to be the old Ward Family farm.  Upstairs in the attic under dirty mattresses, raccoon feces, 1940s DDT bug bombs we found Martin Ward’s World War 2 service papers, photos, maps, letters home.  The papers tell the story of a Minnesotan serving in the Pacific Theatre.  He was a Lieutenant on the troop carrying landing craft ship U.S.S. Lenawee APA 195.  He was at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.