Brothers of War

I have so many exciting updates about France to share but those must wait!

We are currently in the midst of home renovations and I have limited access to my records. This is somewhat shorter than I initially planned given the circumstances.

I've written about my late Grandfather, Frank J. Polachek, and his military service. Tonight I'd like to share a bit about each of his brothers that served during WWII (excluding Nick). My plan is to write about each of them during the year so this will just be military service.

Below are the search results from NARA showing the enlistment records of all the Polachek brothers (minus Wesley who did not serve).

 The National Archives: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946 -Record Group 64 

I'm uncertain why Uncle Mike & my Grandfather did not enter active service in Cleveland when Uncle Steve & Uncle Nick did. Perhaps there is no rhyme or reason. Uncle Mike was inducted at Camp Perry (Lacarne) that was several counties away from Cleveland (Cuyahoga County), in Ottawa County. Of note, Lacarne was used as a POW camp during WWII. We have no known ties to this area. Similarly, my Grandfather was inducted a state over at Fort Benjamin Harrison (not too far from Indianapolis, IN). We also do not have ties to IN.

Michael (Mike) was the third child born in 1908. According to Aunt Arlene, Uncle Mike was over Army age restrictions during WWII. Indeed he would have been 34 at the time he enlisted. As such he was kept stateside and used as an Army Bartender in TX for the duration of the war.

After the war Uncle Mike married Aunt (Amelia) Minnie. He worked mostly in the restaurant industry and had two children. He died from brain cancer in 1981.

Most of what I know about Uncle Steve's service comes from Aunt Arlene. He was the first to enlist in  February 1941 and was discharged in January 1946. He served as a 1/Lt. with the 37th Infantry which was a National Guard division from Ohio nicknamed the "Buckeye Infantry". Uncle Steve was overseas from May 1942 - August 1945.

In one letter she sent me, Aunt Arlene talked about her "mail system". This involved walking up to a store on Broadway and purchasing a bright blue stationary set. Although she wrote Uncle Steve she also corresponded with all the other Polachek boys. Using this stationary. according to her, made sure that , " They didn't have to wait to hear their names called at mail call. They could see they had a letter and if it was blue, they knew it was from me.".

Steve Polachek

Of note in letters from Aunt Arlene, she talks about how difficult it was for her when Uncle Steve was gone. Another letter talks about how the mail would "stop". She didn't know exactly where Steve was, they weren't allowed to tell, so she had no way of knowing if an "action" was going on. Was he injured? Was he dead? What was going on, where was the mail? Several nerve wracking weeks would pass that she would try to occupy herself. Then the mail would start again as if nothing happened. Sometimes several letters would suddenly arrive at once and she would feel one thing: Relief, because that meant from the date of the letter she knew he was still alive.

I wish I would have asked her if she knew how he found out about Nick's death. If it was during or after the war. It's my understanding that, fearing for the mental stability of troops in combat, many families withheld information like this until the soldier returned home. Or if the family did tell him - who was responsible for that letter? Aunt Katie? Aunt Martha? Aunt Arlene?

From November 6-19, 1943, the 37th Infantry landed in Bougainville (Solomon Islands). This included Uncle Steve who later received a Bronze Star for actions on March 24, 1944. In addition to the Bronze Star, he also was the recipient a Medal for the Liberation of Manila from the Philippine Government (among other honors).

Bougainville was an interesting campaign. In 1942 the Japanese occupied the small island. After many blood thirsty months, the allies managed to drive the Japanese to a remote area of the island. The Japanese remained in this remote area, having no contact with the allies, for the remainder of the war.

After the war he returned and made Aunt Arlene a very happy lady, can you guess? He married her! Uncle Steve had a variety of jobs in schools, athletics, and sales. My mother recalls him selling cars for a period. They went on to have 6 children and he passed away in 1977.

Frank, Steve, and Mike were all buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. In her later years, Aunt Arlene, enjoyed visiting Calvary on days when the graves of local Veterans were decorated with flags. (Cuyahoga County maintains a database of the burial sites for local Veterans. Mostly composed by way of discharges on file with the county recorder.) One year she went, she noticed my Grandfather's grave lacked a flag. In her words, she "gave them hell" over the slight and would check he had a flag each proceeding year.