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After daughter's persistence, World War II soldier gets posthumous Bronze Star

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) - 8/3/2015

Aug. 03--ST. LOUIS -- A Des Peres woman spent years fighting to get a Bronze Star for the father she never met.

Patricia Spier, 71, was born two months after her father, Walter Wojcik, was killed in Normandy, France, during World War II. In recent years, she immersed herself in research to find out why he never got the Bronze Star for his bravery.

She hit a dead end when she discovered that records of his service had been destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in Overland. But she kept writing letters to the Veterans Administration and other agencies, collecting information, and ultimately got a crucial assist from the office of U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

"I felt hopeless at times," Spier said.

On Monday, in a brief ceremony at the Soldiers Memorial downtown, Spier received the posthumous Bronze Star Medal for her father from Brig. Gen. Greg Champagne. Spier was emotional when Champagne handed it to her.

"I said to myself, 'Dad, we made it,'" Spier said afterward, in an interview. "It was like something was pushing me to find more about this man. I was driven. My father was giving me a message from heaven."

Spier's father was a jeweler who lived near Cherokee Street with his wife, Celeste Wojcik. In the Army, he was a technical sergeant and member of the 313th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division.

Spier said her father apparently was killed during the invasion of France in July 1944. He was reported as missing in action, then his wife was notified later that he was dead. One of his war buddies sent Wojcik's widow a letter saying Wojcik and another soldier had been sent to check on a German tank when he was fatally shot by Germans in a wooded area.

Spier said her father's body was never recovered.

One day, Spier was searching on the Internet under her father's name. One military website said he earned the Bronze Star. Spier couldn't ask her mother about it because her mother died when Spier was 29. "I looked at all his medals because I had them all encased and there was no Bronze Star," she said.

Spier was able to obtain documentation from the American Battle Monuments Commission. Those records showed that her father not only had been awarded a Purple Heart, but he also had earned a Combat Infantryman Badge that entitled him to be awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

Spier said it's always bothered her that he didn't get the award, and she was re-energized every time she would watch The History Channel and see the documentaries about World War II.

McCaskill, D-Mo., said she hopes other people contact her office if they believe their loved one is entitled to a military award that hasn't come. She said Wojcik's case shows the records center fire doesn't have to be the end.

"When people begin to look and they find out there was a fire, they give up sometimes," she said. "There are other ways we can prove this. And that's what my office would love to do on behalf of other families."

Kim Bell -- 314-340-8115

@kbellpd on Twitter

kbell@post-dispatch.com

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