Polish WWI veteran (112 years old!) promoted to captain

Started by Martok, February 24, 2012, 05:24:38 PM

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Martok

I thought this was a cool little story... 


Quote

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Defense Ministry says a 112-year-old veteran of both World Wars has been promoted to captain.

The ministry says in a statement that Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak visited veteran Jozef Kowalski in a nursing home in Tursk, in western Poland, on Thursday and promoted him from lieutenant to captain.

Kowalski was born Feb. 2, 1900, in what is now southern Poland, but was then part of the Austrian Empire. He fought in a Polish cavalry unit formed during World War I.

The statement says Kowalski is the only survivor of Poland's victorious 1920 war against Bolshevik Russia.

It says that after 1920 he studied at a cavalry school but chose to return to his family farm.

In 1939 he returned to combat, fighting the Germans but spent most of the war a prisoner.


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"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

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Gusington

Wow. And on top of being 112 he fought in both world wars. I wish he wrote a book about it.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

LongBlade

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Shelldrake

Great story and a nice gesture on the part of the Polish government.
"Just because something is beyond your comprehension doesn't mean it is scientific."

Dean Edell

Centurion40

Any time is a good time for pie.

Keunert

he lost and won in both wars. what a complicated situation this guy was in.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

Special K has too much class.
Windigo

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

bayonetbrant

There can't be more a dozen or so WWI vets still alive, eh?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Gusington

^That we know about.

I'm sure there are more tucked away in the wilds of some far flung corners of Europe. You never know...there might be an American Civil War vet living the life of a hermit at 180 somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains :)


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

LongBlade

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Gusington

I should write a book about that. A pseudo history/biography about America's oldest vet. I would buy it.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd