The Late Joe Kolac
Dear Editor: When I first thought about writing this letter, I thought the subject matter would be “Near The End of An Era” or “An Honor to Know”. When I sat down at the computer, it came easy. I was born late September of 1934 and like all Americans, men in the services were my heroes. No sports figures then. I knew the airplanes, the carriers, battle ships and most of the heavy cruisers by name and number of guns and of course, the difference between the blue and gold stars. I helped my older brother carry papers and he and the other carriers knew it all. The first think we looked at in the paper was the box score in the lower left hand front page. Planes lost, ships lost and men lost. I can also remember being scared several times.
I first met Joe Kolac about 10 years ago at our condo and the friendship was slow in developing. He was single and my wife was sick. Early breakfast was a mainstay for Joe and we seldom joined him. Then he invited us to go to the American Legion, Post 125 with him and it soon became a ritual. We would anchor the table while he would dance with every lady he could, even when his friend Dorothy was with him. When she was tired, he wanted to dance.
Joe could talk of his exploits in the war as he must have put the bad stuff out of his mind. There was the time he was carrying a BAR (heavy automatic rifle) and shrapnel hit it, ruining the weapon. All he got was stung hands. More than several times he had bullet holes in his coat and pants. Once he got shrapnel in his back, but did not go to an aid station where it would have been documented, making him eligible for the Purple Heart. After the war was over, he was shot in the hand taking a pistol away from a drunken soldier.
His favorite story was when their platoon was taking a farm house and his lieutenant sent him around to the rear. Kolac lobbed a hand grenade through the kitchen window, kicked the door off the reaming hinge, letting off a burst of automatic fire from his Tommy gun as he entered. “You know what I killed?” he would ask, almost in disbelief. After a brief pause, he would blurt out “A canary.” He would then tell about the 15 Germans that came out of the cellar to surrender. Another of his stories was a German was going to shoot him but the gun was empty. Kolac captured him and returned to his lines. Kolac’s lieutenant wanted to take the German back to the rear, but Kolac knew the lieutenant, “I captured him, I’ll take him back.” responded Joe. Joe’s parents immigrated from Poland and he knew the history of Poland being invaded. Sgt. Joe Kolac was an honorable soldier, Joe Kolac was an honorable man.
Another of Kolac’s exploits was, he was the first GI to enter Berchtesgaden (Hitler’s hide away in the mountains). This fact cannot be disputed as he captured a German captain there, which is a matter of record.
Now you know why I did not know how to address the subject matter. He was “An Honor to Know” and Kolac is “Near The End of An Era.” When I was a child, he was a hero, one I finally got to meet.
John Mark Smith
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