U.S. Army Vietnam War Addison, IL Flight date: August, 2019
By Charlie Souhrada, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interviews Volunteer
Growing up, Sylvester Dziedzic didn’t have a family dog. However, when he joined the Army in 1965, he developed a specialty as a Military Police (MP) Sentry Dog Handler and served in that role during the Vietnam War.
Sylvester’s story began in 1943 when he and his twin brother, Stanley, were born to Frank and Stella Dziedzic in Wisconsin. “My dad wanted to be a farmer,” he remembers. “When that didn’t work out, we moved to Chicago and my dad took a job in a bakery on the city’s south side.”
Growing up in the Pilsen neighborhood, Sylvester attended St. Adalbert Catholic School from first through eighth grades, and graduated from Carter H. Harrison High School. After school, he worked in the bakery from 6 – 10 p.m. five days a week to help the family, which grew over time to include three sets of twins for a total of nine children. “We all had to help our mom and dad,” he says. “There were a lot of kids to take care of!”
His hard work allowed him to contribute to the family’s finances and gave him the means to pay $2,121 in cash for a brand new 1962 Chevy Impala that he later traded in for a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix. He sold the Grand Prix years later when he enlisted – a transaction he now regrets. “I wish that I had kept that car!”
In 1965, instead of waiting to be drafted, Sylvester and Stanley chose to take control of their situations and enlisted in the Army. In May, the twins reported for Basic Training together at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Sylvester used his competitive nature to get him through the eight weeks, which was highlighted by running a six-minute mile in heavy combat boots.
After Basic, the twins went their separate ways. Stanley shipped off to Vietnam while Sylvester stayed stateside for additional training. Based on his test scores, Sylvester had qualified for MP training and was sent to Fort Gordon, Georgia. “Toward the end of our eight weeks at Fort Gordon, they asked for volunteers for dog handlers, and even though we never had a dog growing up, I raised my hand.”
As a result, Sylvester received orders to report to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, for eight more weeks of training as a sentry dog handler. “My dog’s name was Jimmy and both of us were very green!” Sylvester explained that the Army used German Shepherds, matching the soldiers and dogs by temperament. Jimmy and Sylvester were a good match.
During training, Sylvester and Jimmy learned to work as a team and take stock of their surroundings. “You’d get to know every aspect of your dog’s actions,” he says. “If his ears were pointed up, you’d look between them and they’d point you to the target just like a gun sight.”
When training was complete, Sylvester and Jimmy were assigned to patrol a Nike missile site on Belle Isle, Michigan, on the Detroit River. In 1966, Sylvester received orders to join the 212th MP Company in Vietnam. Since the Army didn’t transport dogs overseas, he parted ways with Jimmy and began his journey by train from Chicago’s Union Station, caught a commercial flight to Asia and eventually ended up at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon. There, he was teamed with a new dog named Dena and was assigned to Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam where he served for the remainder of his service.
Sylvester’s post was located on the outskirts of the Phan Rang Airport. He and Dena pulled guard duty over ammo, food and fuel supplies. Guard duty consisted of 26-straight days of service from sundown to sunrise. In his one day off each month, Sylvester enjoyed hanging out in the post’s bar where he listened to a reel-to-reel tape of popular music that one of his brothers had recorded and sent to him. “Silvio, our bartender, was from Chicago too and he’d play the tape for us. Word spread and other soldiers would come in to hear it too. We’d all end up crying, listening to the music from home!”
In May of 1967, Sylvester was notified it was time to go home. “They walked up to me one day and said get your stuff, you’re going home! I had a couple of hours to prepare and that was it. You’d be surprised how fast you can pack up when someone tells you something like that!”
He caught a commercial flight back to the U.S. and eventually ended up back home in Chicago. There, he hugged his parents and enjoyed two T-bone steaks his mother prepared especially for him. He took an extended road trip to California with friends before going back to work at the bakery.
“I soon found out that I couldn’t stand working within four walls,” he says. So, he applied to join several unions and eventually became a member of Carpenters Local Union 1539. He worked framing suburban houses and commercial high rises until retiring after his 61st birthday in 2004.
In 1969, Sylvester and his wife met through one of his brothers; the couple will soon celebrate their 49th anniversary. They have two children and five grandchildren. Since growing up without a family pet, Sylvester has made up for lost time as five dogs have joined the Dziedzic family throughout the years: an Australian Shepherd, a Shepherd Doberman mix, a Miniature Schnauzer, and two German Shepherds.
He now spends his time working on projects throughout the house and generously sharing his carpentry skills with his neighbors. Sylvester, along with a younger brother by two years, Florian, will be honored for their service together on the same flight in August.