Jay Dockendorf Photo
Sixty-seven years later, Private First Class Frank Mitchell received an overdue honor for his service to his country.
Private First Class Mitchell, a resident of the Tower One — Tower East complex for older adults, was awarded medals earned during his three years of service for the US Army in Calcutta, India, and on American soil between the years 1943 and 1946.
He received them Saturday at a Memorial Day weekend event in the Tower East conference room. Over 40 family members, friends, and fellow retirees gathered to watch.
The event was a surprise: Mitchell’s family didn’t tell him the medals had arrived.
“Now how’s that for being patient?” Mitchell’s daughter, Gloria Lopez, said from the podium.
Mitchell’s son, Master Sergeant James Mitchell, led the ceremony, which honored not only Mitchell but also the numerous other Tower One/Tower East residents who served in the armed forces: “We want to acknowledge everyone who served,” said guest speaker Colonel Kenneth Gertz (retired) of the New Haven Veterans Council.
A show of hands revealed that 15 World War II veterans, including one woman, two veterans of the Korean War, and two veterans of the Russian army,were in attendance.
Private First Class Mitchell arrived in Calcutta in August 1945, after the war had effectively ended. Narrowly avoiding combat, while in India he trained for hand-to-hand combat and oversaw an all-black infantry.
Looking back on his father’s service and the conspicuous absence of due medals, Master Sergeant Mitchell said, “I don’t know why he didn’t receive them — he just never did.
“When I heard him talk later, it become clear how important the awards were to him.”
So the son contacted U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro’s office, which in turn contacted the military to obtain his father’s metals.
In his prepared remarks, Master Sergeant Mitchell jokingly remembered how, “I thought he must have really screwed up when I was told he only made it to “PFC”.”
Ultimately, the younger Mitchell came to understand that systematized segregation was probably the reason for his father’s limited advancement. “Times have changed,” he said, noting his own attainment of Master Sergeant, unlikely in his father’s day.
The elder Mitchell, who’s 85, concurred.
“I have seen this world do some changing, for us and a lot of other people, and it makes you feel good to see it change for the better,” he said in interview after the ceremony. All three of Private First Class Mitchell’s sons have served in the armed forces.
Colonel Gertz of the New Haven Veterans Council presented Private First Class Mitchell with five awards for honorable service, pinning them to the recipient’s lapel. Gloria Lopez delivered closing remarks before inviting the attendees to socialize.
Afterwards, Tech Sergeant, 5 Stripes and Tower One/Tower East resident Jack Hillman, who was in the audience, reflected on the elder Mitchell’s service and the service of other blacks in the armed forces.
“America was still segregated then, and to be fighting for a country and then having to suffer the indignities they did is rough,” he said.
Yeoman First Class Ruth Krawetz served in the Navy in Washington during WWII and was a commander in 1977 at the Jewish War Veterans Group at Illinois 192. “A Democrat now,” she expressed after the ceremony: “I didn’t have a chance to be part of a [political] party. Now I wish I there wouldn’t be parties, and we’d all be one. That was what won the war then.”
Stephanie Wronski was born in Poland and relocated to America after the war. She attended the ceremony for Frank Mitchell.
Seated next to her was Stephanie Wronski. Born in Poland, Wronski was 17 when Stalin’s army took Poland back from Hitler. She recalled how the Russian army then kidnapped her whole family and sent them to labor camp.
“We were supposed to be in Siberia forever,” she explained in an emotional interview. Her brother, an officer in the Polish army, was murdered in the Katyn Forest, she said.
The Mitchell family after the ceremony.
Once the conference room cleared out, the Mitchell family posed for a group photo.
While Memorial Day happens once a year, communal gathering of this nature are hardly rare at Tower One/Tower East, said Myrna Campbell, the resident service coordinator for the roughly 375 older adults living in the Tower One/Tower East complex.
Residents regularly enjoy guest speakers, entertainers, bingo, and even twice-weekly opportunities to play Wii Golf. “It never ends in this place. It’s a busy joint,” she said.