Draft Registration Card
Private Steve . Wadyak, son of Mr. and Mrs. Steve
Wadyak, 425 W. Iron St., Summit Hill, has won the wings and boots of the
army paratroopers, having completed [four] weeks of jump training at
Fort Benning, Ga. He made five jumps from a plane in flight, the
last a tactical jump at night involving a combat problem on landing.
Pvt
Steve Wadyak
Paratrooper, Gets
Army Discharge
Private Steve Wadyak, recently discharged from the Army, is home with
his mother, Mrs. Mary Wadyak, Summit Hill.
A member of the paratroop infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, Wadyak
entered service Dec. 29, 1943, and trained at Ft. Benning and other
points and went overseas last Sept. 1.
In battles in Holland and Belgium he was wounded and frost-bitten.
He holds the Purple Heart medal wit an Oak Leaf cluster and the ETO
ribbon with two battle stars. |
Coal Mine Employment Record
Steve worked as a Poleman in the #9 Mine from 7 October 1952 to 1
February 1953
Stephen [sic] Wadyak
of Summit Hill, a disabled World War II veteran, will make note of the
observance by participating in his 25th Memorial Day parade in his home
community.
Wadyak, who made seven parachute jumps into Belgium and France with
a unit of British commando, said "it is a day to remember all your
former buddies and family members" who are no longer among the living.
He said it is a quiet day and a day of many memories.
Wadyak draws a disability pension from the Army resulting from
frost-bitten feet during one of his last parachute jumps in France.
Active in the Summit Hill American Legion Post, he is a member of
the post's color guard and participates in firing a salute to the dead
during the annual services at the complex of cemeteries at the eastern
end of Summit Hill.
On June 1, he will go to Daytona Beach, Fla., to join many of his
paratrooper friends at a reunion of their outfit. |
Veterans
Grave Registration Record
shows Steve died in St. Luke's hospital in Fountain Hill and was
cremated.
[courtesy of Joe Nihen] |
Grave marker for Steve K. Wadyak in Saint John the Baptist
Byzantine Catholic Cemetery, Summit Hill (Carbon county), Pennsylvania.
Steve enlisted in the Army at Allentown, PA on 8 December
1943.
Pvt Wadyak was transferred from HQ 82nd Airborne
Division to Service Company, 508th PIR on 3 October 1944.
On 4 January 1945 Pvt Wadyak was evacuated to a field
hospital classed as a non-combat casualty.
He
was listed as a passenger on the Queen Elizabeth when it arrived New
York, NY from Gourock, Scotland on 13 April 1945. The manifest
indicated he had suffered frostbite..
Following treatment he was discharged on 14 August 1945 |