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Memories of Dennis Kroll

By Barry Romo

Dennis was involved in VVAW since the early days. He was a leader of the Madison, Wisconsin chapter. One of the first things that you would notice about Dennis was that one of his hands was missing a finger. What had happened was he was a squad leader with the 101st Airborne, in Vietnam. He was blown up in a landing which was thoroughly FUBAR’d by Military "Intel." Dennis woke up, just tore up. He ended up having close to sixty operations on his arm.

In 1987, he and I were part of a VVAW trip to Vietnam that was pretty incredible. We were told by the US government not to go to Vietnam at that time. That didn't stop us.

He helped organize Dewey Canyon IV in 1982.

He was a regional contact and leader in the Madison Chapter. I remember a giant Agent Orange demonstration there. It involved VVAW assaulting the Governor's Mansion from the lake. VVAW used to like to tie in our actions with military type operations. People landed and demanded that the Governor stop the use of Agent Orange or Dioxin based sprays.

Everyone liked Dennis. He was a nice guy. He had a nickname, "The Emperor" because he was a super leader.

Dennis was a cool character.

Barry Romo has been a member of VVAW since 1971.

Dennis Kroll at Dewey Canyon IV, May 12, 1982.

Dennis Kroll at Dewey Canyon IV, May 12, 1982.