They All Came Home: The Nolte 36

About the Book

The remarkable true story of 36 cousins who went to war and returned home to tell about it. “Paul Wessel has done his family great service by capturing the stories of the 36 members of the greater Nolte family who served their nation in World War II.” Peter Mansoor Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair of Military History The Ohio State University “One of the most carefully researched, beautifully written works of narrative nonfiction I have read in years. A portrait of the culture that produces men capable of doing what needs to be done — and a portrait we desperately need right now.” Don D. Mann U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six (Ret.)

About the Author

Paul H. Wessel is the great-grandson of Carl and Louise Nolte, nephew of Loren, Reinhart, and Walter Wessel, and godson and namesake of Paul Nolte—four of the thirty-six. The Nolte grandsons who fought were his father’s first cousins, and so his own, once removed. He spent three decades in industrial and healthcare automation, founded and sold medical device companies, and holds six U.S. patents: a career built on proving claims with documents. He held the Seelye Lecture Fellowship at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Concordia University, St. Paul. He brought that rigor to his family and the Nolte 36’s war, spending more than a decade in the record and over six thousand primary source documents. He continues to pursue the Medal of Honor recommendation lost for Pfc Earl L. Nolte in the 1973 St. Louis records fire.