LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – On a stretch of U.S. 41 in Menominee County, lawmakers are hoping to give a fallen Upper Peninsula soldier a permanent place in the community he called home.
House Bill 4351 would designate a portion of the highway as the “SPC David Anthony Wilkey Jr. Memorial Highway,” honoring a husband and father whose life ended far from where it began, but whose memory never left the people who knew him.
Wilkey grew up surrounded by the woods and backroads of the central U.P. Before joining the Army, he worked alongside his father in Elkhart, Indiana, and built a life with his young family. He deployed with the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment out of Fort Riley, Kansas.
On June 17, 2007, an IED detonated near his unit in Baghdad. He died the next day at just 22 years old.
Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River), who represents the community where Wilkey grew up, said this tribute is more than a legislative gesture; it is a promise to a grieving family and to a town that never forgot what it lost.
“All the time that has gone by, this is long overdue,” Prestin said. “It’s a great thing to give to the community and the family that’s been waiting. I hope it helps bring some closure.”
Prestin said the U.P.’s closeness makes tragedies like Wilkey’s especially lasting. “In the U.P., everybody kind of knows everybody,” he said. “A memorial like this reminds people of the sacrifice… and the wound that town incurred.”
Under the state’s Memorial Highway Act, signs must be funded through private donations, and community groups have already begun coordinating efforts. The bill passed in the House unanimously and now moves to the Senate. If approved, US-41 from US-2 to County Road 374 would soon bear his name, ensuring that even 17 years after his passing, the people of his hometown will keep telling his story.
