January 25, 2008 – So, I know I've neglected my duties as webmaster over the last several months. In addition to the constant nagging of members Company 1 and other local departments, I have received well over 50 emails from firefighters across the country inquiring about the delay. I apologize for the lack of updates. I have posted the following story to explain my absence.

I took a few months off from the Fire Company to help my family care for my grandfather. Following a successful surgery in July to remove his cancer ridden pancreas, my father, two aunts, and I cared for him in 24 hours shifts – at his home, where we thought he would be most comfortable and peaceful. While still fully cognoscente, he slowly lost the ability to do the most minimal tasks. The same day that the Polish American Congress - the organization with which he was closely associated for more than 30 years - was holding a recognition ceremony where he was being awarded with the first-ever Polish American Congress Medal of Freedom, Colonel Casimir I. Lenard AUS (Ret.), my beloved grandfather, passed away. I wanted to pay tribute to the life and legacy of my grandfather by telling the story of his life, the life of a brave soldier and an American patriot, who also made a tremendous contribution to strengthening the friendship between the United States and Poland.

My grandfather was born on March 10, 1918 to a family of Polish immigrants in Chicago. At the age of 10, he was enrolled in the Jesuit Gimnazjum in Chyrow, Poland, where he completed the eight-year course of study. Upon his return to the United States, he attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economic History.

In reaction to the September 1, 1939, Nazi invasion of Poland, as a private he joined, the Chicago Black Horse Troop, 106th Cavalry, Illinois National Guard. In 1941 he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Cavalry, with duty at Fort Riley, Kansas. He requested assignment to the 1st U.S. Infantry Division "The Big Red One" - scheduled to be the first U.S. Army unit to go overseas (on the H.M.S. Queen Mary, August 2, 1942).

As a member of the 1st Reconnaissance Troop, he was engaged in overseas combat duty from 1942 to 1945. He participated in Operation Torch with the 1st Infantry Division as part of The Center Task Force amphibious landing on November 8, 1942 at Oran, North Africa; in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, on July 10, 1943 at Gela, Sicily, one of the largest combined operations of World War II; and, in the D-Day amphibious landing with the 1st U.S. Infantry Division on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France. He also served as press and radio censor with the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in London, Paris, Spa (Belgium), and Luxembourg City.

After his discharge from active duty in 1945, he married his beloved wife Casimira (Myra) Lamot, and participated in his family restaurant business, known as "Lenard's Little Poland" in Chicago and "Lenard's Casino" Summer Resort in Beverly Shores, Indiana.

During the Korean War, again heeding the call to service, he volunteered for active duty, from August 1951 to 1957, under special assignment with the Headquarters Berlin Command and later at Headquarters Fifth U.S. Army in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1962  he was selected from more than 40 candidates nationwide for a five-year tour of active duty with the General Staff at the Pentagon, where he became Chief of the Army Intelligence Reserve Office. Starting in 1967 he served one year in Vietnam, as Commanding Officer, Technical Intelligence Detachment, and later as director, U.S. Element Combined Military Interrogation Center in Saigon (disseminating studies and reports world-wide), during which he saw fierce combat during the Tet Offensive. From September 1968 to June 30, 1970 he was a military intelligence research analyst at the U.S. Army Institute of Land Combat at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Col. Lenard retired after 30 years of distinguished military service, for which he was awarded the Silver Star Medal with Cluster, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal with "V" for Valor, the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, seven overseas campaign ribbons (Algeria-French Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace and Rhineland) and numerous other citations, the last being the Normandy Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty, presented by Virginia Congressman Thomas M. Davis III on Capitol Hill on May 15, 2001.

Upon retirement from the military, he became the first executive director of the Polish America Congress, Washington D.C. Office, from July 1970 to 1974 where he and his wife worked tirelessly to support the Solidarity movement in Poland.

After leaving the Polish American Congress Washington D.C. Office in 1974, he became Project Manager of the US Bicentennial Ethnic Racial Council, which organized nationwide conferences and coordinated local and national U.S. Bicentennial activities, providing many opportunities for Polonia participation.

From 1991 to 2000, as a volunteer and team member he worked with Myra, his wife, on a large number of projects for the Polish American Congress, such as:

• The administration of grants of The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), totaling several million dollars, through the Polish American Congress Charitable Foundation (PACCF), to support the budding Polish underground, Solidarity, and Citizens' Committees with urgently needed technical resources and finances.
• Playing a lead role with Myra in supporting Poland's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• Reinvigorating national ethnic community leaders into the Central and East European Coalition (CEEC) to work harmoniously on common issues, precipitated by threats of Russian moves at re-establishing its sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe, most specifically US Foreign Assistance programs and NATO enlargement.
• Forming, in the final days of the campaign, the NATO Ratification Working Group, going beyond the ethnic organizations to include nationwide veterans, religious, and union groups to support the ratification in the US Senate of the accession of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO

Col. Lenard also served on the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross, Baltimore Office, which is the seat of the International Tracing Center for uniting families separated by war; as well as membership as a board member of the Citizens Flag Alliance, a coalition of more than 140 nationwide organizations including 13 Polish American organizations, working for the passage of the Flag Protection Amendment to the US Constitution. He was well-known for his advocacy of close relations between Poles and Jews, the two groups that suffered the most under German Nazi rule.

For his work with the Polish American Community, the Polish American Congress, and dealing with improving Poland's position in the world, Colonel Lenard and his late wife Myra, who also served as a director of the Washington D.C. office of the Polish American Congress, received, among others, the following awards:

• Commander's Cross of The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland with Star, presented by Jerzy Kozminski, Poland's Ambassador to the USA (individually, on February 25, 2000)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, presented by Poland's Foreign Minister, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (individually, on May 3, 1995)
• A Polish Cavalry saber with inscription "For Your Freedom and Ours From The Grateful Nation of Poland," presented by Poland's Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek during the NATO Summit in Washington DC (jointly, in April 1999)
• The Polish National Alliance's "Gold Cross Legion of Honor" (awarded jointly in December, 1998) by Mr. Edward J. Moskal, President of Polish National Alliance and the Polish American Congress
• The Polish Apostolate "Pride of Polish American Community Award, presented by Adam Cardinal Maida, Archbishop of Detroit on August 29, 1999 (awarded jointly)
• The Founders Award (presented individually on November 22, 1992) by the PAC Washington Metropolitan Area Division
• The Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by Lech Kaczynski, President of the Republic of Poland, presented by Poland's Defense Minister Mr. Aleksander Szczyglo on July 15, 2007. The Polish American Congress Medal of Freedom (awarded individually) on December 7, 2007

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) called his life a triumph in a statement that was read into Congressional Record before the 110th Congress. "His legacy is a deep friendship and alliance between the United States and a free, democratic Poland."