Bob CollinsHere’s your daily dose of sweetness:
George Fricovsky, 90, never really liked school very much. But he had other things to do when he was 18. Like getting drafted into the Army.
Says the Scranton Times-Tribune:
Drafted in 1944, he served with the 276th US Infantry 70th Division Company, departing for Marseille, France, that December. He earned a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and World War II Victory Medal, American Theater Service Medal, European-African Middle Eastern Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal for his bravery and service.
An explosion on Feb. 19, 1945, in Forbach, France, killed seven other soldiers and left Mr. Fricovsky badly wounded. Shrapnel left him fighting for his left leg. The doctor who saved his leg taped the shrapnel to his wrist to remind him what happened. He held onto it long after the war had ended.
When the Pennsylvania legislature honored him in May, Fricovsky wept openly while a legislator recounted his service. “We spend millions of dollars going to the movies to see movies about superheroes who save the earth from evil,” the lawmaker said. “Yet we forget that there are real-life superheroes who walk among us.”
Fricovsky came home, got married, raised a good family, and worked for a living. But he was always a little sad that he never got around to getting a high school diploma, his grandson said.
So yesterday he got a diploma.
His grandson, the local high school’s vice principal, presented it to him.
