Three priests receive quilts of valor in recognition of their military service
Story and photography by Amy Eichsteadt
On May 31, fittingly, just six days after Memorial Day, a crowd of more than 50 people gathered at the welcome center of the beautiful Grotto Gardens of St. Philip Parish in Rudolph to honor three local priests.
Rich Cournoyer, commander of the Rudolph American Legion Post 485, began the ceremony saying of the priests: “God always had a call for them, but there was a call from the United States government that they answered first.”
It was this call that ultimately resulted in the three pastors, Fathers Clayton Elmhorst, a native of Rudolph who now serves at St. Jerome Parish in Wonewoc, Barry Saylor of St. Philip’s in Rudolph, Our Lady Queen of Heaven and St. Lawrence in Wisconsin Rapids and Robert Schaller of Ss. Peter and Paul and St. Vincent de Paul in Wisconsin Rapids, each being presented with a Quilt of Valor.
Quilts of Valor Foundation
Representatives from the Wisconsin Rapids Materials Girls Quilt Club attended the event to present the quilts. Joni Wolf shared Quilts of Valor’s founding and history: “Quilts of Valor Foundation began in 2003 from a dream of founder Catherine Roberts. Catherine’s son was deployed to Iraq, and in her dream, she saw a veteran in deep despair. In the next scene, he was wrapped in a quilt, conveying the message: ‘Quilts = Healing.’ Her foundation’s vision is to honor and cover our servicemen and women who have been touched by war with a comforting and healing quilt of valor.”
The first quilt of valor was awarded in November 2003 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to a young man from Minnesota who lost his leg in Iraq. Locally, the Material Girls Quilt Club started making Quilts of Valor in 2016 and has since awarded 440 quilts to area veterans. Throughout the country, quilting clubs are doing the same to expand the foundation’s reach and have awarded 444,683 quilts nationwide as of May 2026.
Honoring Our Priest-Veterans
“To our veterans, these quilts are meant to say thank you for your service, sacrifice and valor,” Wolf shares. “They are priceless and given from our community’s and maker’s hands and hearts. Each stitch that holds the layers together represents love and gratitude.”
Along with the quilt, each recipient receives a quilted tote bag to carry it. Inside is a “history card” that tracks each quilt’s journey through the hands of all the different volunteers who have touched it.
As the priests were presented their quilts, Wolf read: “Though we may never know the extent of your sacrifice to protect and defend the United States of America, we present you with these quilts of valor as an expression of our gratitude from a grateful nation.”
Fathers Elmhorst, Saylor and Schaller each served in different branches of the military for varying lengths of time and in different parts of the country and the world. Despite these differences, all three felt a similar calling to minister to God’s people as priests during their time in service. Each took a moment to reflect on those days.
Father Barry Saylor—U.S. Army
Father Barry Saylor served in the United States Army from 1987 to 1991 and again from 2001 to 2006. The priesthood had been in the back of his mind since the eighth grade. When he was 20, after attending UW-Eau Claire and struggling to pay for school, he sought out the GI Bill.
Saylor completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Upon completion, he was commissioned through the Army’s “Green to Gold” program. He was later assigned to Fort Sam Houston, Tex. and was injured in Desert Storm before being discharged. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Meritorious Service Medal. “The recovery time and being told I couldn’t serve anymore definitely made me rethink my life plan,” he shares.
Earlier that year, he heard a sermon given by a missionary priest at his home parish in San Antonio. “I knew he was talking to me. I left a message at the archdiocese and didn’t get a call back, so I tried again four days later and still didn’t get a call back. I took that as my sign; the priesthood wasn’t meant to be.” Saylor began his work career, which would last nearly a decade.
Then, after the Sept. 11 attacks, he was reactivated to serve as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. During this time, he was also assigned to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas to serve as a liaison officer between armored units deploying and ships supporting them in transporting equipment to the Middle East.
His next assignment was as the G3 (operations) commander for III Corps at Fort Hood, Tex. Upon resignation of his commission in 2006, Barry was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Joint Service Commendation Medal.
Saylor admits that “being stationed on a military post can be a lonely experience for some, but I never felt that way.” He fondly remembers the camaraderie with the other soldiers. “An immediate bond is formed between soldiers because everyone is in the same situation,” he says. The bond between soldiers is much like the bond brother priests share. Later, in 2011, Saylor once again felt the call to consider the priesthood, and this time it was meant to be. He was ordained for our diocese in 2018.
Father Robert Schaller—U.S. Marines and Navy
Father Robert Schaller enlisted in the United States Marine Corps four days after he turned 18 in 1975. He attended boot camp at the USMC base in San Diego, Calif., and was then stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center—Twentynine Palms, Calif., for advanced training as a radio repairman.
He was stationed at Camp Hanson in Okinawa, Japan, for one year, a time he found particularly memorable. He said, “That was the year I grew in my faith and discerned a call to the priesthood.” He recalls that year writing weekly letters home and making one phone call to his family on Christmas Day.
Upon returning to the States, he was assigned to El Toro Air Station in California. “The separation from family and friends was difficult,” he shares. “In those days, there was no internet or cell phones. When stateside, I would splurge and call home once a week (after 9 p.m. when the rates went down).”
Father Schaller had already discerned his vocation and had been accepted by the Diocese of La Crosse as a seminarian. He was discharged from the Marine Corps on Friday, Aug. 25, 1979, and three days later, on Monday, Aug. 28, 1979, he entered college seminary. Father Schaller was ordained in 1987.
In 1992, he was commissioned in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps and attended chaplain school in Newport, R.I. Afterward, he was stationed at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. Being a Navy chaplain was intense and trying. He dealt with many sailors’ personal, marital and family crises, as well as notifying families of the death of a servicemember. Thankfully, “the community of fellow priests and chaplains was very strong and supportive.”
Father Clayton Elmhorst—U.S. Air Force
Father Clayton Elmhorst, ordained for our diocese in 2014, felt called to military service during his senior year of high school. Several uncles and relatives served, some even sacrificing their lives. “We were a military family, and I wanted to serve just like they did,” he shares.
Elmhorst served in the United States Air Force from 1999 to 2003. He attended basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., as a combat controller apprentice and continued training at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., where he attended air traffic controller school.
“In the middle of my training, the Lord spoke to me during a powerful moment of prayer and told me I could either be a combat controller or a priest of Jesus Christ, but I couldn’t do both. I was not happy with that ultimatum. After struggling for months with sports-induced asthma, I realized I had to ‘ring the bell’, understanding that He had been calling me to the priesthood ever since Cardinal Burke asked me that day I was confirmed.”
Elmhorst pivoted to become an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technician, which brought him to Vandenberg Air Force Base (now the first U.S. Space Force installation). “I spent several months there, and I fell in love with California, especially the 300,000 acres of private National Reserve land that was closed to the public.
“The Lord and I used to fish off a pier on that land— the same pier where they brought the NASA boosters all the way from Florida to the Panama Canal. I caught a lot of crabs off that dock, and there wasn’t a soul for miles. Those moments were filled with soul-searching and praying as I watched the sunset while fishing. I spent a lot of time discerning the priesthood there as well.
“My four years in the service were transformative,” Elmhorst shares. “I had nowhere else to go but to the Lord. I connected with people of my faith at Air Force bases and in local communities.
“From washing out of combat control, to working on nukes in the middle of nowhere, I had spent a lot of time praying in the sunflower fields of North Dakota.
“During that time, it became clear that I was deeply called to the priesthood. I was struggling to find the courage to say yes. It was a profound period in my life as I mentally prepared to say yes, make sacrifices and let go of the future I had envisioned for myself.
“In the end, through everything, God won because He never gave up on me. I am confident I made the right decision, as I never looked back.”