There are reminders everywhere.
A sticker on the window of a fire engine. A painting on the wall of a fire station. A flag crafted out of discarded fire hose. A framed photograph of a flag-draped coffin.
Mitch Lundgaard, a 14-year veteran of the Appleton Fire Department, was killed in the line of duty a year ago, on May 15, 2019, but his memory has endured in memorials scattered across the city's fire stations, and in the memories of those who worked with him.
"It pulls at you all the time," said Justin Brown, an Appleton firefighter who was a close friend of Lundgaard's. "Multiple times a day."
Lundgaard, 36, was the first Appleton firefighter to die in the line of duty since 1933. He was killed when, during a routine call at the city's transit center, a man who had been revived after suffering a drug overdose pulled a small handgun from around his waist and opened fire on police officers and first responders.