embassy events 2008

Polish Veteran of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan Awarded Posthumous Purple Heart

21 November 2008

Purple Heart (photos)

Dawid Pietrek, a Polish citizen, was posthumously honored in a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw November 19, 2008, during which Ambassador Victor Ashe and the U.S. Marine Guard Detachment honored his service in the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. Private First Class Pietrek had volunteered for duty in June 2007 after emigrating to the United States in 2005. He died in action on June 14, 2008, in Afghanistan and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on July 1, where his mother received a certificate of his being granted U.S. citizenship. His mother, Dorota Pietrek; sister, Ewelina Pietrek; and grandmother, Jadwiga Huniewicz traveled from Police, near Szczecin, to attend the Embassy ceremony. Ambassador Ashe presented them with the Purple Heart, the prestigious U.S. military medal for soldiers wounded or killed in the line of duty. U.S. Marine Security Guard Detachment Commander Sgt. Robert Kunard and the detachment presented the Pietrek’s with an American flag and Private Pietrek’s medals and Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn presented a hand-drawn portrait of Private Pietrek.  

Before joining the marines, Dawid Pietrek had lived in Elmhurst, Illinois, where he worked providing medical care for the elderly. He had hoped to eventually become a police officer. 

During the ceremony at the Embassy, Ambassador Ashe read from a letter that Private Pietrek had sent his family shortly before his death, in which he said, “We are helping and protecting these people and providing them with schooling and medicine. If something should happen to me, remember: this was my decision. We’re defending people here and fighting terrorists.” The Ambassador also read the names of Private Pietrek’s comrades who fell with him: Sgt Michael Toussiant-Hyle of Tacoma, Washington; Lance Corporal Layton Bradly Crass of Richmond, Indiana; and Private First Class Michael Robert Patton of Fenton, Missouri.  

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration. This American decoration is the oldest military decoration in the world in present use and the first American award made available to the common soldier. It was initially created in 1782 as the Badge of Military Merit by one of the world's most famed and best-loved heroes-General George Washington.