Terry Brown
Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
(TNS)
Sep. 23—Army Pvt. John Greschiak of Watervliet, who was killed in action on Sept. 16, 1944 during a successful rescue mission outside Niedersgegan, Germany, received a belated posthumous New York State Conspicuous Service Cross last Monday, the 80th anniversary of his death in combat.
Major Gen. Raymond Shields, state adjutant, presented the medal to his grandniece, Cheri Gagliardi, of Rotterdam, and niece, Donna Cramer, of Albany, during a ceremony at state National Guard Headquarters in Latham.
Greschiak and other members of an armor force rescued eight Army soldiers, including Tech Sgt. James Scalzo of Albany, who was pinned down by more than 50 German soldiers.
The medal recognizes distinguished federal military service by a New Yorker, according to Eric Durr, New York National Guard spokesman.
“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,” Durr said.
“Serving our nation in a combat zone is not a common occurrence today,” Shields said as he presented the medal. “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. That’s what Private Greschiak was doing when he was killed by enemy fire.”
Cramer thanked Shields for holding the ceremony to honor the uncle she never met.
The ceremony was made possible by the efforts of Peter Clouse and his son, Zachary, of Coeymans. In 2019, after a family discussion about the military service of Scalzo, Peter’s uncle, and curiosity regarding how the soldier earned a Bronze Star, the two started tracking down the details of Scalzo’s role in the battle during the rescue mission.
They learned how Scalzo earned his Bronze Star for valor during the rescue mission.
The Clouses had gone through records held by the National Archives, documents at the U.S. Army Engineer Museum and the Archive at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., as well as records held by the Michigan Army National Guard’s 107th Engineer Battalion, Peter Clouse said.
They were able to put the story together:
On Sept. 16, 1944, Tech Sgt. James Scalzo was on duty with the 245th Engineer Combat Battalion, a unit attached to the 5th Armored Division.
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 who ambushed the patrol on a farm. Two officers and two enlisted men were wounded, and one jeep was destroyed.
Scalzo and the three other Americans took cover but the others were wounded and captured. Scalzo jumped into a jeep and backed up along the road while under enemy fire, Clouse said. Outside of machine gun range, he stopped so the other three soldiers could climb aboard.
As they headed to friendly lines, he radioed his commander and requested an urgent rescue mission. The division sent 17 soldiers from the 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, one M-4 Sherman tank and two M-3 halftracks to assault the farmhouse and rescue the Americans.
Grieschiak, an infantryman, was a member of that platoon.
Grieschiak, who graduated from Albany High School, worked at Williams Press in Menands before entering the Army in June 1943.
His platoon assaulted the Niedersgegen farmhouse as the tank provided suppressive fire. The men in one half-track managed to rescue the two captured officers, who were being interrogated. The other half-track and its soldiers rescued the two enlisted soldiers.
The platoon also rescued Scalzo and the other three soldiers.
But, Greschiak was killed during that rescue mission.
When Clouse and his son realized that Greschiak had lived in the Capital Region they decided to find his family and share what they learned.
How were the Clouses able to track down Cramer and the grandniece?
The Clouses found a notice of Greschiak’s 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, Cramer.
After he had no luck in finding a phone number he did find an address in a directory. He went to that address. He rang a door bell, but nobody was home. As he was getting back in his car, Cramer drove up. He got out and he shared his research findings.
After Peter Clouse found the niece he encouraged her to apply for the Conspicuous Service Cross.
Thanks to the Clouses, she and the rest of her family learned more about their relative who died so young at age 19, 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.
Greschiak also had earned a World War II Victory Medal, a Good Conduct Medal, a Combat Infantryman Badge, an American Campaign Medal, an European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and an Army Presidential Unit Citation while serving with the 47th Infantry Battalion of the 5th Armored Division.
He is buried at the Hernri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Henri-Chapelle, Belgium.
The Clouses also discovered Scalzo was drafted into the Army in August of 1941 and was discharged in August of 1945. He went on to marry and raise a family in the Capital Region and died in 1999 at the age of 81.
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