LATHAM, N.Y. - Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of New York, honored a World War II Soldier 80 years to the day after he was killed in combat.
Shields presented the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross to the niece and grandniece of Pvt. John Greschiak, a resident of Watervliet, New York, who was killed in action on Sept. 16, 1944, during a rescue mission outside Niedersgegan, Germany.
The medal recognizes distinguished federal military service by a New Yorker. Because Greschiak, who joined the Army in 1943, was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, his family was entitled to request and receive the New York medal on his behalf.
“Serving our nation in a combat zone is not a common occurrence today,” Shields said. ”And even in World War II, at the height of the largest war ever fought, it was not where the average Soldier would find themselves.”
“Being at the tip of the spear in ground combat is the very essence of serving one’s nation and fighting for the welfare of their fellow Soldiers,” he said. “That’s what Private Greschiak was doing when he was killed by enemy fire.“
Donna Cramer, Greschiak’s niece, thanked Shields for holding the ceremony to honor the uncle she never met.
Her uncle, who was 19 when he was killed, was the youngest of four children and her mother and her aunts never spoke about him, Cramer said.
The ceremony at New York National Guard headquarters took place thanks to the efforts of Peter Clouse and his son, Zachary.
In 2019, the two started tracking down the details of the military career of Peter Clouse’s uncle James Scalzo — “Uncle Jimmy” — who was also involved in the fight in Niedersgegen.
He and Zach learned more about the action in which his uncle received the Bronze Star for valor; they also learned about Greschiak. Clouse said the more they learned, the more they wanted to know.
Eventually, that led him to Donna Cramer’s driveway and the ceremony with Shields after he helped the family apply for the Conspicuous Service Cross.
The Clouses went through records held by the National Archives, documents at the U.S. Army Engineer Museum and Archive at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and records held by the Michigan Army National Guard’s 107th Engineer Battalion, Peter Clouse said.
Finally, they were able to put the story together.
On Sept. 16, 1944, Tech Sgt. John Scalzo was assigned to the 245th Engineer Combat Battalion, a corps-level unit assigned to the 5th Armored Division.
It had been four months since the D-Day invasion in Normandy and the division was approaching the German border.
Scalzo’s battalion launched a two-jeep, eight-man reconnaissance team west to see what was in front of the division.
At Niedersgegen, they ran into 50 German soldiers at a farm who ambushed the patrol. The two officers and two enlisted men were wounded, and one jeep was destroyed, Clouse said.
Scalzo and the three other Americans took cover. Scalzo jumped into a jeep and backed up along the road while under enemy fire, Clouse said.
Outside of machine gun range, he stopped, the other Soldiers climbed aboard, and they headed to friendly lines.
Scalzo reported what had happened, and the commander of the division’s Combat Command Reserve decided to send a rescue mission.
The division sent a “married platoon” from the 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, a combined arms team of one M-4 Sherman tank and two M-3 halftracks with about 17 Soldiers, to assault the farm and rescue the Americans, Clouse learned.
Greschiak was one of those Soldiers.
Under covering fire from the tank, one halftrack rescued the two wounded officers, who were being interrogated, while the other rescued the two wounded enlisted Soldiers. In the fighting, Greschiak was killed.
When he and Zachary realized that Greschiak had lived just up the Hudson River from their home, they decided to find his family and share what they learned.
They found a notice of his death in the Oct. 10, 1944, edition of the Troy Times Record and the names of his sisters. Eventually, they found the name of a daughter of one of the sisters, Donna Cramer, Clouse said.
Clouse said the phone number he tried was no good, but he had an address. He went to the house and rang the bell, but nobody was home. As he was getting back in his car, Cramer drove up. He got out and the conversation started.
Thanks to the Clouses, she and the rest of her family learned more about this relative who died so young, said Cheri Gagliardi, Greschiak’s grandniece.
“It’s good to know that he was saving people and he did not die in vain,” she said.