Press Release - Monday, March 06, 2006
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"I came to hazard all for the freedom of America." - General Casimir Pulaski
CHICAGO - Monday, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn joined Danuta Kowalik - mother of Lance Cpl. Jakub Kowalik who was killed in Iraq and granted citizenship posthumously - to salute Casmir Pulaski Day.
"Brigadier General Casmir Pulaski once wrote that he ‘...came to hazard all for the freedom of America,' said Quinn. "Lance Cpl. Jakub Kowalik embodied that same spirit of self-sacrifice and patriotism for which we honor him today. Both Pulaski and Kowalik gave that ‘last full measure of devotion' so eloquently stated by President Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address."
Quinn was also joined by public officials and Polonia leaders who saluted Casmir Pulaski with a wreath-laying ceremony. The wreath was placed at the base of a wall-size oil painting by Stanislaw Batowski (1866-1946) that depicts General Pulaski on horseback in the Battle of Savannah where he was mortally wounded in 1779, at the age of 32.
Recognized as the "Father of the American Cavalry," Pulaski was the Brigadier General and the first Commander of the American Cavalry during the Revolutionary War. Among his many accomplishments, Pulaski was credited for saving the American army at Brandywine and breaking the British siege at Charleston.
Jakub Kowalik emigrated from Poland to the United States with his family in 1992 and attended Maine East High School in Park Ridge. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he felt a patriotic duty to enlist in the Marines and was assigned to duty in Iraq in February 2003.
Kowalik, 21, was killed in May 2003 when an artillery shell accidentally exploded. Quinn joined with Danuta Kowalik in December 2003 when her son received his citizenship posthumously.
"For your freedom and ours."
- General Casimir Pulaski
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