Elderly man awarded Purple Heart for bravery in WWII
By Chris Butler
staff writer
STUART–Bernard Gwiazowski, an 85-year-old hospice
patient, combats old age and dementia, battles he
knows he will not win.
The 85-year-old, who cannot remember his current age,
says he’s at peace with his own mortality.
But the World War II veteran says he can remember his
combat experiences as a youth all too well,
experiences, he says, that will forever haunt him.
“I’ve never liked watching someone else getting
killed, whether it was the enemy or not,” Mr.
Gwiazowski said of his time in the European theater.
“I hate killing. But I had to do it.
“I had no choice,” he added.
Mr. Gwiazowski said any romanticized notions of brave
soldiers marching off to war, as sometimes portrayed
in movies, are nonsense.
“Some of those soldiers out there said they weren’t
afraid to die. That’s bunk. Everybody wanted to live,”
he said.
“And when you heard a bullet go by you, you were
always grateful,” Mr. Gwiazowski said.
But it wasn’t a bullet that he had to fear.
While hiding in a foxhole, Mr. Gwiazowski was struck
in the back by flying shrapnel, a serious injury
prompting a three-month hospital stay.
Lying in a hospital bed and facing a life of possible
paralysis, Mr. Gwiazowski said his spirits were low.
But one nurse, he said, made the difference.
“If it weren’t for her, I still wouldn’t be walking.
She was always telling me, Get up, you lazy bas****d,
you can walk,” he said.
After numerous attempts, Mr. Gwiazowski was walking,
and running, again.
And for his wounds, he received the Purple Heart.
But a recent conversation with Jo Ann Farmer, a
hospice social worker, prompted even more recognition
More than 60 years after receiving the Purple Heart,
Mr. Gwiazowski revealed to Ms. Farmer that he could no
longer find it, she said.
“He told me that he wishes he could find it before he
dies,” she said.
Ms. Farmer said she contacted U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, a
ranking member on the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee, for help.
It was discovered that Mr. Gwiazowski also had a
Bronze Star, as well as two other medals not listed on
his military discharge.
In a ceremony twice delayed by both hurricanes Frances
and Jeanne, Mr. Gwiazowski was recognized for his
bravery, and finally awarded his medals.
At the ceremony, held at the Stuart Nursing and
Restorative Care Center, Mr. Gwiazowski was awarded
those medals, along with seven others recognizing his
military service.
Because of the two hurricanes, Mr. Gwiazowski’s
family in Massachusetts, along with representatives
from Sen. Graham’s office, were unable to attend.
“Medals don’t mean much to me,” he said, adding he has
more concern for his fallen comrades from long ago.
Mr. Gwiazowski’s sense of honor and nobility isn’t
lost on Ms. Farmer.
“They throw the term hero around a lot,” she said.
“But this man truly is a decorated war hero,” Ms.
Farmer added.
“The people in the senator’s office say they would go
out of their way to make sure he got his medals, and
sure enough, they did,” she said.