World War II veteran Edward Czechowski was just 17 when he enlisted in the Navy shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“I turned 18 at Guadalcanal,” he said, referring to the military campaign fought on and around the island in the war’s Pacific Theater between Aug. 7, 1942, and Feb. 9, 1943.
Czechowski of Kenhorst celebrated his 100th birthday Thursday, just three days after Veterans Day.
Though the events of the war that ended Sept. 2, 1945, happened more than 79 years ago, his time spent in service on the U.S.S. Saufley remains fresh in his memory.
“Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Russell Island, Green Island, Treasure Island, Bougainville, Munda, Saipan,” he said, rattling off the many islands he set foot on.
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Czechowski was onboard the Saufley on Nov. 29, 1944, when the ship was attacked by enemy planes while making its way back to Leyte Gulf, after nearly two weeks of antisubmarine action in the waters of the Philippines.
The ship lost one man and suffered considerable hull damage. Following repairs, it moved into Lingayen Gulf to meet the invading enemy.
Czechowski and crew were entering the Sulu Sea on Jan. 7, 1945, when a kamikaze came hurtling toward the Fletcher-class destroyer, named for pioneering naval aviator Lt. Richard Saufley.
Some men abandoned their posts, he said, but Czechowski, one of the ship’s gunners, held his ground, aimed at the plane and fired the 20-millimeter gun.
“I thought I was going to die anyway, so I just stayed there, shooting,” he said, noting the suicide plane was very low when hit.
“I blew it apart in front of me,” he said. “The bomb, that plane, everything exploded and went right around me.”
Pieces of the Japanese aircraft fell to the deck nearby as shrapnel blew past him on both sides.
“God was looking after me,” said Czechowski, who started as a seaman and was promoted to coxswain.
For his heroic achievement, he was awarded the Bronze Star.
“I was pretty brave back then,” he said, then added with a chuckle: “Now I’m afraid of a mosquito.”
Czechowski is one of an estimated 119,000 U.S. World War II veterans alive today, just a small percentage of the 16 million who served in the war.
This month he joined 54 other veterans of the war from throughout the region for a dinner honoring their patriotism and service.
The event was organized by Tyler Boland’s Keeping History Alive project and hosted by the Berks History Center in Reading.
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Boland, 20, a dual business marketing and American history major at Albright College in Reading, began interviewing area veterans of World War II while a student at Wilson High School.
Two of his great-grandfathers served during the war, but both died before he was born.
When a World War II veteran who was scheduled to speak at his school passed away just days before the event, it underscored the importance of gathering the generation’s stories before it is too late.
Over the years, Boland developed strong friendships with Czechowski and the other men and women he interviewed and who were honored at the event.
“We had B-17 tail gunners, Marines, infantrymen, submariners, every branch, every story. It was an unforgettable event,” Boland said.
Even real-life Rosie the Riveter, Dorothy Trate, 102, of Union Township, made an appearance. Trate, who calls herself “Dottie the Press Operator,” was one of more than 6 million American women who took jobs in factories during the war.
Trate appears at area World War II-themed events in a costume inspired by the kerchief-clad, bicep-baring woman depicted in the “We Can Do It!” wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric.
Pair of WW2 vets from Berks reintroduced 80 years after graduating high school together
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Most of the surviving World War II veterans served in the Pacific toward the end of the war, Boland noted.
The youngest are those who were 18 years old in the final year of the war, he said. Born in 1927, they are or will turn 97 this year.
Just shy of 100 at the time of the event, Czechowski fell somewhere in the middle of the group, whose ages ranged from 96 to 105.
Still a young man at the war’s end, Czechowski returned to Reading where he met and married Anna Reifsnyder. They were married 73 years until her death in 2021.
The couple had two sons, Edward and John, both of whom are also deceased.
Czechowkski worked as a long-haul trucker, retiring at age 59 on a teamsters’ pension.
“I guess every month the teamsters are saying, ‘Man, when is this guy gonna go?’” he said, chuckling.
Becoming more serious, Czechowski, who has only minor health complaints, said he is often asked how he has remained so healthy and lived so long.
“Someone asked me, ‘What’s your secret?’” he said. “I said, ‘God.’”
In addition to his strong faith, Czechowski credits a clean lifestyle for his longevity.
“I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t take drugs. I control my temper and I don’t swear,” he said.
Reflecting on how close the kamikaze plane came to ending his life all those years ago, Czechowski said: “I never forgot God. I should have been dead.”
