The Pulaski Area Historical Society gathered veterans from modern conflicts all the way back to World War II and gave them an opportunity to tell folks about their service during a panel discussion at the local museum Nov. 8 to commemorate Veterans Day.
Jack Kraszewski was drafted when he was 18 on March 1, 1943, serving in Europe as a gunner during World War II, and he caused a laugh in the audience when he told about how his sergeant said if he lost the gun he was using, he would have to pay for it.
“We could have been overrun, and they could have taken our guns, but that didn’t happen,” Kraszewski said.
Ray Gronski, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1959-63, said he enlisted, because he couldn’t pay for college, and his service included an education in electronics.
“I went with three other classmates,” Gronski said. “Two of them are gone now.”
Nick Johnson, who recently retired from the U.S. Marine Corps after 22 years of service, said he enlisted when he was 17 with the permission of his parents, motivated by the attacks of 9/11 and wanting to make sure his country and his home were safe.
“Fortunately, we got the opportunity to volunteer and didn’t have to get drafted,” Johnson said. “We all watched that happen, and I felt I had to step up and serve.”
Crystal Morgan-White, who currently serves in the U.S. Army Reserves, enlisted in August 2001, but she noted that she had much different plans about a month before 9/11.
“I was originally to get college money, and it was before all the stuff in the Gulf took place,” Morgan-White said. “I was going to go to college for free, and then Sept. 11 took place.”
After that, she went through all her training and was shipped off to Iraq, where she did two tours.
Damon Szymanski, a U.S. Air Force veteran, noted he had a farm exemption that shielded him from the draft, but he decided to serve anyway, noting there were a lot of draft dodgers at the time.
“They said in basic training, ‘Shut your mouth, and do what we tell you,’” Szymanski said. “Then after my service, I picked up TB (tuberculosis) in Germany. I was fortunate to be cured of my TB at a hospital in Madison.”
He said when he enlisted, he didn’t know what he was going to do with his life, but after spending two years in Germany, he decided he was going to go back to the farm.
Changed by military life
James Rozmiarek, a 22-year Army veteran, said his time in the military made him realize that God was in control of his life.
“We had a saying down there that people either turned to the bottle or the Bible,” Rozmiarek said. “You know, the foxhole conversions are true. Eventually, I became a chaplain and currently serve as a hospital chaplain. It was very formational for me, especially on a spiritual level.”
Gerald Baranczik, who served as a rifleman in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, said his time overseas had him dreaming of returning home to drink Krakow well water.
“That stuff we filled up on out of these swamps and streams was not very good,” Baranczik said. “I remember thinking on my first mission, ‘I’m never going to be able to sleep out here,’ and the next thing I know, somebody’s waking me up to pull guard duty.”
Johnson said he was impacted in his worldview by traveling to many different countries, including some Third World places, and seeing how they lived.
“I think a lot of us take most things for granted,” Johnson said.
Morgan-White saw some similar things while she served in Iraq. The most notable things for her were that the drinking water was 100 degrees and children were running in the hot sand of the desert with no shoes on.
“It really is a big eye-opener,” Morgan-White said, adding there was a “lack of toilet paper. Baby wipes, that was one of the best things you could get in a care package over snacks.”
Kraszewski said he was never scared of being killed during his service, with the exception of one night, when he was on guard duty, and there was a noise in the distance. He yelled out for identification and the password, which changed daily, but there was no answer.
“Now, I’ll tell you, I was scared,” Kraszewski said. “All of a sudden, the noise was gone.”
Kraszewski told one of his fellow soldiers about it, and the next night, they served guard duty together right up until sunrise. That’s when they discovered what made the noise.
“I lived on a farm, and I should have known this,” Kraszewski said. “There was a cow running loose.”
Gronski served in a time before desegregation, and he recounted the first time he got to leave his base in Biloxi, Mississippi. He got on a bus and sat in the back seat. Shortly thereafter, the bus driver told him he needed to come to the front of the bus, because the back was designated for Black people.
“That kind of shook me up at the time,” Gronski said. “It was at the time all the race riots took place in Biloxi.”
Kraszewski said his wife never asked him about his experiences serving in World War II, and he never felt the need to tell her.
“I figured that was in the past,” he said.
Coming home
Baranczik experienced a different homecoming than the others on the panel. He recalled landing in Oakland, California, and having to deal with protesters who felt the U.S. shouldn’t be in Vietnam and chose to blame the soldiers, most of them who did not volunteer to go there.
“I guess the biggest thing that I really disliked with a person I knew who was well educated who asked, ‘Who are we fighting — North Vietnam or South Vietnam?’” Baranczik said. “I decided then that there was no sense telling anything about this, because people don’t even know.”
Rozmiarek noted that only 4% of people served in the military when he was deployed.
“The other 96% supported us,” he said. “We felt their support at the time.”
Johnson had a similar experience to Rozmiarek, with welcoming committees at the airport offering their love and support. He noted people had a lot of questions for him about what it was like to serve, because the only exposure they had was what they saw on television news.
“There were people with coffee and cookies and whatever,” Johnson said. “A lot of volunteers came out and showed their support, which was really nice.”
Morgan-White also had a hero’s welcome, although she didn’t see herself as a hero.
“I felt like a hero coming home, but I didn’t even do anything,” she said. “It makes you tear up, all these people coming out to the airport to thank you and call you a hero and all these things.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
