100-year-old World War II veteran honored in Pulaski with parade as he prepares for D-Day anniversary in Normandy

PULASKI – Eighty years ago, Eugene “Jack” Kraszewski was stationed across the Atlantic Ocean, preparing for what would become one of the most important days in history.

Today, he’s preparing to cross the Atlantic again, this time in remembrance of the day the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy, France, in the D-Day attack against the Nazis in World War II.

Before he left, though, Kraszewski on Tuesday was honored by the Pulaski community with a birthday parade (he turned 100 in April) and a sendoff befitting a hero.

The parade consisted of a color guard and Kraszewski in an olive-green jeep moving down St. Augustine Street from Front Street to Pulaski High School, where the Red Raider band performed “Armed Forces Medley" and he was given a 21-gun salute.

Along the way, people gathered on the side of the streets to cheer him on, take photos and shoot video.

Kraszewski is one of 70 World War II veterans going to Normandy on an American Airlines charter flight to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, which was June 6, 1944, when the Allies invaded western Europe. The invasion turned the tide of the war in Europe and helped liberate France.

Kraszewski, of Pittsfield, was among those who landed on a Normandy beach and among the even fewer who survived it, and World War II.

On April 23, former U.S. Rep Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, recognized Kraszewski in the House of Representatives.

Gallagher told how Kraszewski was drafted into the U.S. Army when he was 18 and before he graduated from high school. He became part of an anti-aircraft unit.

“From March of 1943 to February of 1946, Jack valiantly served our country during the height of the tensions of World War II,” Gallagher said. “Jack was even present on D-Day at the Invasion of Normandy, one of the largest amphibious invasions in modern warfare history.”

Kraszewski saw combat in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate prisoner of war camps in Germany. He was discharged from the Army in February 1946 and “returned home and married the love of his life, Marjorie Stender,” Gallagher said.

Eighty years ago, Kraszewski prepared for war. Today, he and fellow World War II veterans return to remember and honor those who landed on the beaches of Normandy and those who never returned.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: 100-year-old World War II veteran Eugene Kraszewski honored in Pulaski