Published: February 11, 2013 12:01 AM EST
Updated: February 10, 2013 8:16 PM EST
George Pulakos, now living in Fort Mill, S.C., recently received the French Legion of Honor for his service during World War II. Officials from the French Embassy cited Pulakos, 90, for his heroism at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. While serving as a surgical technician with the 331st Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division, he tended to dozens of wounded soldiers. Pulakos told the Charlotte Observer's Mark Price that for years he's carried horrific images in his head of all the bodies on the beach. "They were stacked like cord wood, 4 and 5 feet high," Pulakos said. As Denis Barbet, French consul to the Southeast United States, pinned a medal on Pulakos, the longtime Erie resident who moved to South Carolina a year ago said he couldn't help but think of the hundreds of soldiers who should have received such an honor. "But they never came home," Pulakos said. He also drew laughter at the ceremony when he recalled a good-hearted Frenchman along the side of the road who handed him what he thought was a glass of water. "I gulped it down, not realizing it was pure alcohol and it felt like flames were coming out of my head," Pulakos said. "Everybody laughed, and I did, too, once I could breathe again." He attended the ceremony with his son, Dean Pulakos. ... A big sea glass festival, with more than 90 vendors, is scheduled for May 25 and 26 at the Bayfront Convention Center. Festival organizers, led by Relish Jewelers, expect more than 7,000 at the event. Geologist Scott McKenzie and biologist Jim Grazio will be among the regional experts who will lecture at the festival. The late Chet Wasielewski, who spent a lifetime working on the Great Lakes, once told me he had mixed feelings about beach glass. "It's pretty, but it means an awful lot of people dumped their garbage in the lake," he said.
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Fairview's Blake Bojewski, one of the finalists in the 2012 Rising Stars competition, will be a featured vocalist during Greenville Symphony Orchestra's May 11 spring concert. ... Officials who operate the Baldwin-Reynolds House in Meadville are excited that humorist Mark Russell will headline an April 4 benefit for the musem at Allegheny College's Ford Chapel. The Baldwin-Reynolds House, marking its 50th year as a museum, was once home to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin. ... Best wishes for a speedy recovery to longtime Millcreek football and baseball coach Kim Parker, who had surgery Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic. ... When St. Patrick Church pastor Monsignor Henry Kriegel recently told parishioners that, after raising $1.5 million for extensive church renovations, he could not in good conscience come back to ask for more money to repair St. Pat's silent bell carillon system, a church member called later that day to pledge all the money for a new system. The next day, another parishioner called to make the same offer, but Kriegel explained that a family had already stepped forward. "Well, is there another project, preferably one related to music, that we can assist?" the caller asked. Kriegel said the family then pledged funds to restore the church's historic pipe organ. ... Erika Ballman DeSalvatore, a graduate of Mercyhurst Prep and Mercyhurst University, will be featured on NBC's "Fashion Star" on March 8 at 8 p.m. ... A Broadway touring company will stage "The Book of Mormon" at Cleveland's Palace Theatre from June 18 through July 7. Call (216) 241-6000 for ticket information.
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