Sixty-four years of waiting ended for 87-year-old Nicholas Swyka on July 10 as he finally received his Purple Heart, awarded for his service during World War II.
Family, friends, members of American Legion Middletown Post 25 and U.S. Military officials visited the Delaware National Guard’s Nelson Readiness Center in Middletown to right what Adj. Gen. Francis Vavala, of the Delaware National Guard called “a long-standing wrong.”
Swyka received his Purple Heart after an eight-year fight through military bureaucracy, with his wife, friends and allies in the state and service at his side.
At the ceremony, Master of Ceremonies Guy Gravino told the story of Swyka’s wounds and subsequent battle while Swyka’s granddaughter, Brittany Poore – who just finished a tour one-year tour in Iraq, operated a slide show that featured photos and maps of The Battle of the Bulge, the battle where Swyka was wounded.
“Although late, we assemble here today to thank you for your sacrifice and all you’ve done,” Gravino said.
Swyka was drafted into the military when he was 21. In September 1944, he entered the European Theater as part of the 395th Anti-Tank Infantry, which was part of the 99th Infantry Division. On Dec. 12, his infantry had moved to Rocherath, Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last major attack in World War II in which their forces advanced into the Allied forces’ front lines along Belgium near Luxembourg and the Ardennes region, began four days later.
“The only thing that could stop them were these men here,” Gravino said.
On Dec. 20, the 99th moved to Elsenborn to join the battle. Swyka was wounded sometime near Christmas, when a piece of shrapnel exploded 30 feet away from him, cutting his legs, arms, wrist and near his eye. A medic on the scene, Frank Meyer, bandaged his wounds and gave him a shot of morphine. Instead of going to the aid station and filling out the necessary paperwork there, Swyka elected to go back into the battle, as the unit was short of men.
“By then the men in his unit were his family,” Vavala said, “and you don’t desert family.”
When Swyka was honorably discharged from the military almost two years later at Fort Meade, Md., the clerk asked if he had been wounded. Although Swyka said “yes,” the clerk put down “no.”
The next decades of his life were spent raising and providing for his family. However, in 2000, Nick and his wife Mildred decided to try to get Nick’s wounds recognized. It took eight years, but now Nick has received his Purple Heart.
“It’s writing his history,” Gravino said.
Some of those who helped the Swykas were at the ceremony: Gravino, Jymayce Wescott from the office of Sen. Tom Carper (D–Delaware), American Legion Middletown Post 25 Commander Sam Corkadel, Bill Carroll of the Delaware Commission for Veterans Affairs and Veterans’ Advocate John Raughley.
Col. William Barnes and Father Vladimir Klanichka of St. Basil Church in Chesapeake City, Md. said the benedictions. Dominik McClane, Adara Jamison, Ryan Rhodes and Bryan Ross of the Air Force Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps from Middletown High School presented the colors.
Originally the man who wrote the letter to the Office of Correction of Military Records helped Nick get his Purple Heart, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blumb, was going to present it to him. However, he could not attend, so Vavala and Gen. Terry Wiley did so. Vavala also presented Nick with the governor’s personal coin.
“I am proud to have served my country and earned this award,” Nick said.
