Page 29 - November 2018

Full Service
A tribute to World War II veteran and Retired Chicago Police Of cer Edwin Ogonowski
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Aboard the USS Missouri, First Class Gunnery Mate Edwin Ogonowski readied his 40-inch anti-aircraft gun just in case any Japanese Zeroes ventured into range. On deck, just a few feet away, General Douglas MacArthur awaited the signature of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the document that officially ended World War II on Sept. 2, 1945. Ogonowski was almost close enough to see Japan Foreign Minister Ma- moru Shigemitsu lay down the ink.
There were 3,000 sailors on that ship, more than 500 Marines, U.S. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and the high- est-ranking military leaders from China, the Soviet Union, England and half a dozen other countries. Not even 21 years old – and still more than five years from being sworn in with Chicago Police Department Star #13097 – Ogonowski had gone from watching President Harry Truman christen his ship to being in Tokyo Bay on V-J Day.
Now, just a few days away from his 93rd birthday, Edwin is the last living soldier from that crew aboard the USS Mis- souri. His service included 12-hour shifts manning his gun during the bloodiest Navy battle of the war at Okinawa. He slept in that gun turret using his life belt for a pillow. He served the Department for 32 years, patrolling the old 29th and 30th districts. He worked vice and narcotics and as a motor officer. He rescued two small children from a burning fire one day on the job, and he once arrested one of the noto- rious Panczko brothers.
Edwin Ogonowski is a fast-talking, still fast-moving testa- ment to Veteran’s Day, a prominent reason why there is such a holiday. As November has grown to become the month to thank those who have served, henceforth is a thank-you note to a man who makes soldiers, officers and anybody who has ever worn a uniform proud.
“I falsified my age and forged my signature at 17 years old to join the Navy,” Edwin declares. “I was a nut. I wanted the action. I think about it today. I was never scared one day.”
In Service
Perhaps what’s most inspiring about Ogonowski is his call- ing to serve. “I can’t explain to you why,” he pontificates. “I just wanted to go.” In December 1941, right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Navy.
Why the Navy?
“I didn’t want to sleep in a foxhole,” Edwin quips, still showing that wit that gets you through night duty with no lights in the South Pacific or running a beat car in Chicago.
If he could have shipped out in December 1941, he would have. About 10 minutes after graduating from Harrison High School on the southwest side six months later, Ogonowski was at the Plymouth Court recruiting station downtown, getting ready to board a train to Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
Several months later, his number was up to be drafted, but his mother reported that Edwin had already enlisted. He wanted to go into battle “tomorrow,” or even sooner, and there was only one question he had to answer to pass his physical.
“Before you joined the Navy, they ask if you walk in your sleep,” Edwin recalls. “I did when I was a kid. I guess if you walk in your sleep in the Navy, you can walk right off the ship at night.”
He completed his basic training at Great Lakes and even- tually made it to New York for his commission aboard the Missouri in 1944. When President Truman broke the cham- pagne bottle on the ship, it began the shakedown cruise that went through the Panama Canal and advanced toward the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Ogonowski wanted to be in the action, and he would be right in the middle of the
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