Army buddies unite after 52 years

JOLIET – Some memories are too painful and should be forgotten while others are meant to be shared.

Leonard Sowa, 74, grew up in the south side of Joliet, Laraway and Brandon Road. In the middle of the 60's, Sowa found himself in the Army in Verdun, France. It was there that he met Larry Greene from Annandale, Minnesota and Larry Schafer of McPherson, Kansas.

"We kept in touch over the years and knew that it was on our bucket list to get together again," Sowa said in a news release.

In 1965, while on leave in Brussels, Belgium, the men had their picture taken in front of an army tank.

"What was interesting in the first picture was the hole in the side of the tank where the mortar shell went in the tank from WWII," Sowa said in the release.

Sowa, who now lives in Texas and still has family in the Joliet area, met Greene and Schafer in April at an armory in McPherson, Kansas for an updated photo.

During their visit the veterans had an opportunity to catch up on old times and their past escapades.

Their friendship was formed when they bounded over their fondness for drinking back in their Army days.

"We all liked French cognac; because the beer in France was then served room temperature we would put a shot of cognac in it and then it would be a boilermaker," Sowa said in the release.

The young soldiers loved German beer and would drive 50 miles from base to Luxembourg just to have a beer and then get back before bed check at midnight.

"I guess at that time we liked to drink and what a better place than in Europe. I was only 19 when I went over there and if you are old enough to get on the bar stool you're old enough to drink," Sowa said in the release.

Back then, Sowa described Luxembourg as their home away from home.

"When we were unable to get a weekend pass we would fold up our beds and put them behind the wall lockers and space out the rest of the beds so it would look like no beds were missing," Sowa said.

Amazingly they never got caught as they did it many times.

While overseas Sowa bought a brand new Triumph sports car which he ordered from England for $1,825.

"I picked it up in Paris and drove it all over while on leave to France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Spain to see a bullfight in Barcelona," Sowa said in the release.

In 2010 Sowa went back to Verdun, France while on leave from working for a private contractor in Afghanistan. "I worked at the American Embassy in Kabul as a food service worker feeding the troops and personnel at the embassy. It was something that I was very proud to do."

Sowa is semi-retired and resides at Browders Marina on Lake Livingston, Coldspring, Texas.