VFW to host Comrade Day celebration

ELDERON — Randy Ostrowski will be honored Nov. 11 by the Elderon VFW Post 8086 in a Comrade Day celebration.

The ceremony, which is open to the public, will be held at the VFW in Elderon beginning at 11 a.m.

Ostrowski will receive a certificate of recognition from Post Commander John Goskowicz. New post member Lt. Shannon Breske, who currently serves in the U.S. Air Force, will be the featured speaker. A member from the Quilt of Valor organization will be on hand to present to him a handmade quilt. Lunch will follow in the clubhouse.

The Comrade Day program was started five years ago by post Chaplain Emerick Zoromski. Past honorees include John Breske Jr., Nick Knitter, Vincent Cieslewicz, Daniel Betker and John Wolff.

An Army infantry radio operator in the 101st Airborne, Ostrowski served during the Vietnam War from May 1969 until May 1970. He received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained there when he had just turned 21 years old.

According to Ostrowski, he was wounded during a ground attack the middle of the night near Fire Base Vagel on a hill that was numbered, though he no longer remembers the number.

“We were on a hill, like any other hill,” said Ostrowski. “I carried the radio, so we slept in the middle and took the hit when they lobbed grenades into it.”

The date of the attack was April 28, 1970 — two days after his first wedding anniversary.

Ostrowski took shrapnel in his side and was evacuated to an Air Force base, so he didn’t have the same experience as other soldiers who came home on commercial flights. He went home on a 30-day medical leave and spent the last nine months of his tour in Ft. Hood, Texas.

"When I came home, my parents still owned the Hatley Hotel. A small town like this, I was treated like a hero,” said Ostrowski. “It was the opposite of getting spit on.”

His wife, Linda, looked back on 1969 as a very eventful year. Ostrowski had been working at his parents’ hotel when she told him she was pregnant. He then went to work for Kraft Foods in Wausau. He was drafted, and they married in April before he left for basic training in May. Although he wasn’t home for the birth of their daughter, he was home in time to bring them home from the hospital. On Oct. 13, 1969, he was deployed to Vietnam.

Ostrowski admits he was glad to get back home, but he acknowledges it was a hard adjustment to go from that war time experience to being married with a daughter.

Twin boys came along in 1974. He went back to work at Kraft Foods after he was discharged and remained there until retiring nine years ago.

He had gone to boot camp with a couple other guys from Hatley and has kept in touch with them, but he said he hasn’t stayed in touch with others he served with.

“I used to call a guy from Illinois … but through the years lost contact,” said Ostrowski. “It was a different life.”

In 1979, Ostrowski and other Vietnam veterans received a certificate and parade from Marathon County in appreciation for their service.

His wife retired in August, and she laughs that they are adjusting to full-time retirement. Ostrowski joked that her new job is to find stuff for him to do.

Ostrowski is a member of Elderon VFW Post 8086, Hatley American Legion Post 471 and the Disabled American Veterans.

Ostrowski's military awards: Vietnam Service Medals w/3 Bronze Service Stars; National Defense Service Medal; Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal; Purple Heart; Air Medal; Combat Infantry Badge; Good Conduct Medal.