Johnstown Hero - Edward Hanzel - WW II

JOHNSTOWN HERO - Pfc. Edward Hanzel - sent in by daughter Georganne Yurasko - this post is a pure pleasure to write - I've known the Hanzel Family all my life - besides being related - we lived on the same street. Ed and wife Kitty (McGinty) were a fixture down at the Catholic War Vets in Cambria City - where I was a bartender. Ed was an officer, Kitty worked the kitchen and I worked the bar - listening to all the old vets talk about the war.

Pfc. Edward Hanzel of Sbor 30, Johnstown, Pa., is the first member of the SKS Assembly to be acclaimed a hero in this second World War. Brother Hanzel was with a rifle company somewhere in the Pacific which was credited with killing 100 Japs in two days of fighting. In the same hellfire engagement, Hanzel crawled forward to a wounded sergeant's side without of his personal safety and pulled the wounded leader back yards to a place of relative security.

V-MAIL Letter - Ed to his sister Anna - dated August 19, 1944

Dear Sis,

I received your letter and was very glad to hear from you. At the present I am in the best of health and hopes this letter finds you the same.

I see by your letter your doing all right for yourself. By the time you get this letter you will be going to school. So let me know what your taking in your senioe year. Are you taking a Commericial course same as Rosemary.

I had a letter from Rosemary and she told me she is a stenograpgher. I also had a letter from Johnny Har? you heard from any of them lately.

Well I'll have to close for now kindest regards to all. By the way I saw a movie the other night. About a doctor I enjoyed it very much even though it was a old picture. 

Write soon

Your brother

"Eddie"

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Meet the Spishak Family - Chestnut Street - Cambria City - from around 1913. 

Top Row: Joseph, Anna (Hanzel) Ed's mother, Suzanne (Sister Lullus) and John

Bottom Row: Stephen, Helen (Vrabel), Anna (Bosa), Thomas and Mary (Kitsko).