BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Buffalo family went over 35 years without seeing their late father’s Purple Heart medal from World War II, but they were finally reunited with their priceless family heirloom Tuesday.
Lynn Lipczynski’s late father, Stanley Lipczynski, was a World War II veteran.
“It’s all surreal... he loved this country and I wish he could be here,” Lynn said.
In 1944, just before Stanley’s 20th birthday, he went on his first-ever bombing mission for the United States Army Air Corps.
A plane he was riding in was shot down over Austria, he parachuted to safety and miraculously, only broke his right ankle in the process.
“My father never spoke about it, he told us very little,” Lynn said. “Painful memories he didn’t want to share with his children.”
Stanley was a prisoner of war for over a year and received a Purple Heart after being wounded in that plane crash that took the lives of several other people inside.
However, after he died in 1987, the Purple Heart he was awarded went missing.
"I have all his medals and memorabilia but I didn’t have the Purple Heart for some reason,” Lynn said.
Decades later, after his house on Buffalo’s East Side was sold, new owners found the medal inside an old dresser, and the search was on to find his family.
That’s where Diane Blaser got a call.
Diane is the president of the Buffalo Irish Genealogical Society (BIGS), and with the help of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, she tracked down Stanley’s daughter, Lynn.
“You have to honor our service men and women," Diane said. “I found her dad’s death notice, and it listed the survivors and Lynn was one of them.”
“One night I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and I got a phone call that somebody located my father’s Purple Heart,” Lynn said. “I was beside myself and broke into tears.”
Jim Schaller, the adjutant of the local chapter 187 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, got this special moment Tuesday to return what belongs to Lynn and her family.
“It made me tear up a little, and to give it back to the family and see she will take care of it the rest of her life is priceless,” Jim said.
A moment, Lynn will cherish forever, but vows to never let happen twice.
“Never again, it’ll never be out of our hands, believe me,” Lynn said.
