For generations, Ely’s American Legion Post 248 has carried three names that should mean something to everyone who calls this community home: Lozar. Mrace. Loushin. They are more than names on a flag, a jersey, a sign, a raffle ticket or letterhead. Their names represent the hundreds of young people from Ely who served in the military, sacrificed, and died for the freedoms we enjoy here. They were young people from Ely, from two different generations, who went to school here, worked here, played sports, hunted and fished, spent time with friends and family, and imagined futures in the Northwoods community they called home.
Much of what we know about them comes from the pages of the Ely Miner, the Ely Echo, and the Timberjay, which recorded their school days, their service and their loss.
What strikes me most in those old pages is how quickly military service became part of their young lives. One year a name appears on an honor roll or a football roster. A short time later, the same name appears in a casualty report.
As a retired serviceman of 23 years, I served aboard 10 different warships on many deployments, missions, and campaigns from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. I know the hard work, the long separations, and the sacrifices that military service asks of service members and their families.
I also know this: no matter the branch of service, the specialty, the conflict, or whether in war or peace, Americans from all four corners of this country serve and sacrifice together.
Every veteran who serves gives up something to become part of a team larger than themselves. Frank Lozar, Albin Mrace, and William Loushin gave everything. These three young men represent all of them.
Frank Lozar came to America as a young immigrant, grew up in Ely, and became an American citizen. During World War I, he entered the United States Army, went to France, and was killed during the Saint-Mihiel campaign in September 1918 while still in his early twenties.
When Ely veterans organized an American Legion Post after the war, they chose to remember him. It became Frank Lozar Post No. 248.
A generation later, two more young Ely men answered their country’s call: Albin Mrace and William Loushin.
William’s name appears in old editions of the Ely Miner long before the war. He made the honor roll, played starting fullback for Ely Memorial High School, attended Ely Junior College, and earned an athletic letter in basketball. He later joined the United States Marine Corps. Albin Mrace left Ely to serve in the United States Navy.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, both were at Pearl Harbor. William was serving as a Marine aboard the USS Arizona. Albin was serving aboard the USS West Virginia. Both were killed. Both were 22 years old.
The loss suffered by the Mrace family is especially difficult to comprehend. Albin’ s death at Pearl Harbor was only the beginning. His brother Anton Mrace Jr. was killed in France on July 23, 1944. Their brother, Staff Sgt. Frank Mrace, was killed in the Philippines on April 10, 1945. A fourth brother, Louis Mrace, also served, was wounded, survived the war, and returned to Ely. Three sons from one Ely family went to war and never came home alive.
In 1948, the remains of Albin, Anton, and Frank were brought together for burial in Ely. Hundreds attended their funeral, local businesses closed for the morning, and a Navy aircraft flew over the cemetery and scattered flowers above the graves of the three brothers.
The names of Albin Mrace and William Loushin were eventually joined with Frank Lozar’s on the American Legion Post entrusted with remembering them: Lozar-Mrace-Loushin Post 248.
This October, Ely will again be reminded of that sacrifice. Sgt. James Caesar Mondati, an Ely High School graduate, entered military service before World War II. He was captured following the fall of the Philippines, survived the Bataan Death March, and died as a prisoner of war in 1942 at only 22 years old.
His remains were recovered from a common grave at Cabanatuan and, through modern forensic and DNA analysis, were identified in March 2026. On October 10, 2026, more than 84 years after his death, Sgt. Mondati is scheduled to return home to Ely and be laid to rest with military honors.
We often describe the cost of freedom through large numbers: battles, ships, casualty totals, and distant places. But small communities experience that cost differently. It is an empty chair at a kitchen table. It is a classmate who never comes home. It is a teammate who never plays another game. It is parents waiting for news from halfway around the world. And sometimes, it is a family and a community waiting more than 80 years to bring one of their own home.
The veterans who founded our Post answered that loss by investing in Ely’s young people. On October 3, 1924, at a dedication organized by the Frank Lozar Post, Post Commander E.W. Hanson dedicated the new Ely Memorial High School to the memory of the Ely men who died in World War I.
Their names were read aloud, “Taps” echoed through the building, and more than 1,500 people stood in silence.
The school still bears a bronze plaque listing 12 young people from Ely who died in that war. In 1925, the Post established its first scholarship.
In 1926, the Post raised the funds and dedicated two large entryway murals by Minnesota artist David Tice Workman, Education and Industry, which still frame the entrance stairway today. The Post also gave the school six other paintings. Workman’s work in Ely is recorded in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture.
The World War I veterans who made that gift understood war. They had lived it, and many had lost friends to it. Yet when they considered what they wanted future generations of Ely children to see and learn, they did not choose to glorify battle. They chose artwork portraying, in their words, “not the horrors of war but the glories of peace.” That message remains powerful one hundred years later.
That is one reason Lozar-Mrace-Loushin American Legion Post 248 still matters. A century after that first scholarship, the Post continues to support Ely’s students.
After years of very low membership, our Post is experiencing renewed energy. Membership is growing, veterans are becoming involved again, and new leadership has stepped forward.
We have elected a Post Veteran Service Officer with more than 38 years of experience working with the Department of Veterans Affairs, who will help bring information about veterans’ services, benefits, and resources to our members and local veterans. We plan to conduct Buddy Checks, reaching out to veterans simply to ask: “How are you doing? Is there anything we can help you with?”
Here in Ely, Post 248 has worked with our community to obtain a new food trailer. Operated primarily by veteran volunteers, it will help generate charitable funds for eligible veterans, youth, scholarships, patriotic programs, and other charitable purposes. The trailer is not our mission. It is a tool to help fund our mission.
Post 248 does not operate a bar or another business, and we do not own a Post building. We have no intention of competing with or disrupting other organizations doing good work in Ely.
There is plenty of work to be done. We are simply taking responsibility for our own mission and doing the work an American Legion Post should do.
Frank Lozar did not have the opportunity to grow old in Ely. Neither did Albin Mrace. Neither did William Loushin. Neither did James Mondati.
Those of us who came home were given something they were not: more time. We can use some of that time helping another veteran, supporting a scholarship, honoring a veteran at a funeral, helping a young person, or simply being there when another veteran needs someone who understands.
As new families make Ely their home and new generations grow up among these same woods and lakes, we have a responsibility to tell these stories again, not to glorify war, but to remember its cost.
So when you hear the name Lozar-Mrace-Loushin Post 248, remember that those are not simply names identifying a veterans organization. They were young people from Ely.
Lozar. Mrace. Loushin. Know their names. Remember their stories. Never forget the price paid by them, their families, and this community for the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy today.
