In memory of Granpa Jack

On January 15, four days after his twentieth birthday, Jack Herman Kopshina was enlisted into the United States Army in Altoona, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. He was single and had a diploma from Dubois High School, an accomplishment for his time. Most young people like Jack, born and raised during the Great Depression, quit school to work or move around with their families looking for work. Jack had endured extreme poverty and homlesness and was now working as a glasscutter apprentice to his father, Henry. His future looked brighter than his past. However, Adolf Hitler and the Emperor of Japan had other intentions for Jack and the majority of the free world. To stop their aggression and defend the freedom and future of his country, Jack accepted his call to duty as a citizen soldier.

He was assigned to the Warrant Officers branch, 595th MP Escort Guard as military policeman private # 677. He was enlisted for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or the law. He was 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed 148lbs.
As of Jan. 22, 1943 Private Jack H. Kopshina would be accounted for by serial number (33-570-078) stamped on his dog tags and his soldier's box which would hold his personal belongings sent home in case of his death. After a short basic training at Fort Meade he was issued a mkm 30 rifle and a 45 caliber service revolver and sent to Europe, the home of his ancestors, via the beaches at Normandy, France. Here began his journey into the hell of the worst fighting in the European theater including the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardenne Forest of France and Anzio, Italy on route through the Rhineland in the allied march to Berlin.

Jack endured deprivation again, saw horror he could never dream, and killed men whereas he had never been able to kill a rabbit for food. He survived without being wounded. His grit and will had been honed by the Depression, but often his life was spared by divine intervention as he testified to his children later. His love of music and animals, particularly dogs, survived with him through the darkness of war. Divinity had preserved him as one of two survivors of a road bomb that destroyed the truck in which he was playing his guitar and singing for his buddies as they traveled. Divinity witnessed when he had to shoot and kill a young German SS youth with a bomb strapped to himself trying to ride into Jack's encampment. The youth ignored the warnings of the young military policeman, Jack, responsible for guarding the sleeping GI's and their officers. These and other war seeds of unspeakable guilt and fear rooted tangled memories deep in Jack that no amount of vodka or prayer in his behalf could destroy.

On November 23, 1945 Jack returned home to the United States. The US Government released him from duty at the same place, Fort Mead, where it had incorporated him into "This Man's Fighting Army". Jack, 6 feet tall, was honorably discharged weighing a fit 175 lbs, the result of war muscle built from struggling survival amid hostile environments and determined enemies. For his valor Jack was awarded : The American Theater Service Ribbon, The European African Middle Eastern Service Ribbon, the Good Conduct Medal, the Croix De Guerre with palm, The World War II Victory Ribbon, and his mustering out pay of $300.00.

Jack was now free to continue his life from where World War II had interrupted. Unlike many of his buddies he had survived death or visible wounds or disabilities. However, Jack was maimed beyond a doctor's skill. What young soul can walk through the realm of hell and return without a sooty view of the world and himself? But for the remainder of his life he perservered with a dedicated work ethic as a glass cutter. He built a house, planted gardens and was a faithful provider for his wife, Frances and four children, Karen, Nancy, John and Barbara. His love of music and dogs remained. His relationship with Divinity was not church congregation oriented but personal and sometimes argumentative.
Jack was honorably discharged from the struggles of this life in June of 1999. He was honored with a soldier's funeral. He was my dad. He is one of my heroes because he sacrificed, suffered and endured beyond what my young mind judged as weakness instead of war wounds.