Zeddies, William, 1923-1993.

William (Bill) Zeddies, Sr. was born Oct. 23, 1923, and raised in Mishicot, Wisconsin. He attended Mishicot High School and worked on a family farm. He left Mishicot to work as a logger and a railroad fireman on steam engines before returning home to finish school. During World War II, he served on a ground crew for bombers. He learned welding and went to work building ships in Florida. He opened and operated Steel Erection Company. He moved to Alaska in 1960 and worked as maintenance foreman on Distant Early Warning sites from 1966-1971. He was married to Marge Stone. He died Feb. 7, 1993.

The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the Arctic, with stations in the Canadian Arctic, along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, on the Faroe Islands of Greenland, and in Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War, and to provide early warning of a land based invasion.