JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
A Prisoner of War Medal was posthumously awarded to a World War II navigator May 12, 2015, in San Antonio for his time as a captive from 1944 to 1945.
Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Education and Training Command, presented the medal to retired Lt. Col. Timothy Skvarenina, the son of then-Army Air Corps Lt. Stephen Martin Skvarenina, on behalf of his deceased father.
"This is a long overdue medal that was earned more than 71 years ago," Rand said during the ceremony. "It was earned in hostile skies over Germans in an occupied France. It's a medal earned after subsequent captivity in deplorable conditions in a Swiss prisoner of war camp. It was his first - and last - flying mission."
"It means quite a bit to the family to have my father honored," Timothy said. "He never considered himself a hero. He saw a job that needed to be done, went to get it done and got shot down."
Skvarenina's time in the war or as a POW wasn't a story he shared with his friends or family.
"He never really talked about his experience," Timothy said. "He never talked about the details. We learned a lot more in the last year about what he went through than we ever knew while he was alive."
Skvarenina was born Oct. 2, 1921, in Chicago. In January 1943, he reported to San Antonio as an aviation cadet where he trained as a navigator before being assigned March 2, 1944, to the B-24 Liberator with the 702nd Squadron, 445th Heavy Bomb Group, 8th Air Force at Royal Air Force Tibenham, England.
"He was trained to operate this mighty aircraft and, though only briefly, he operated it well," Rand said. "On his first combat sortie aboard the B-24 lovingly called 'Pistol Packin' Mama,' his newly learned skills were put to the test. When two of the aircraft's four engines failed, the pilot turned to Steven to help determine the wounded plane's exact location. Without hesitation, Steven provided the necessary information for the pilot to make the decision to land in supposedly neutral Switzerland in order to save the crew."
The aircraft was 250 miles from England and 60 miles from Switzerland and had fallen out of formation. They were then engaged by Swiss fighters and directed to Dubendorf Field, Switzerland, where they were one of 16 aircraft to land. They were immediately captured upon landing and turned over to Nazi sympathizers.
"Lt. Skvarenina never gave up," Rand said. "Despite being forced to live in deplorable conditions, he had the courage to defy his captors by repeatedly escaping and costing his captors time, manpower and frustration with every attempt."
He first attempted to escape Oct. 6, 1944, but was caught and sent to the Wauwilermoos prison camp that was run by Nazi sympathizers and had deplorable conditions. The prison camp was known as "a hell hole" for captives. They slept on lice-infested straw, were malnourished and had virtually no hygiene facilities or access to health care.
Skvarenina was later released to Davos where he tried to escape a second time Dec. 2, 1944, but was captured again and sent to Les Diablerets prison camp before being released back to Davos Feb. 9, 1945. Six days later, 482 Airmen, including Skvarenina, were repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange.
"By continuing to resist, despite the fact that each time he was caught, the conditions he was forced to endure were worsened. He truly served with honor while captured," Rand said. "There is no singular definition for hero, but the one I've adopted is that a hero is someone who in the face of danger displays courage and puts service before self for the greater good of humanity."
The POW Medal was originally authorized in 1985 providing that the person was a captive of an enemy combatant, excluding Wauwilermoos captives.
On Nov. 29, 1989, the legislation was changed to include those who were captured "by foreign armed forces that are hostile to the United States, under circumstances which the Secretary concerned finds to have been comparable to those under which persons have generally been held captive by enemy armed forces during periods of armed conflict."
Timothy started seeking recognition for his father 15 years ago. He wasn't the only one.
Army Maj. Dwight Mears, the grandson of Lt. George Mears, a World War II bomber pilot and Wauwilermoos POW, also began his own mission for recognition for his grandfather and the other POWs in 2000.
He reviewed U.S. and Swiss documents, which showed that 169 Americans who were captured while attempting to escape Switzerland were sent to Wauwilermoos. Through the efforts of himself and others, the legislation was amended to include "comparable to those circumstances under which persons have generally been held captive by enemy armed forces during periods of armed conflict" and 143 Airmen were recognized in 2013.
Upon seeing the news, Timothy did research online and discovered a photo with a CBS news article that included his father. With the assistance of Mears and others, Skvarenina's identity, along with his relation to Timothy, was verified so the family could be presented with the medal.
"It's been a very long time coming," Timothy said. "It's been 71 years since he was a prisoner and 15 years since I have been asking for him to be recognized. It was incredible to finally receive the medal."
Timothy plans to place the medal in a display case that included his father's other medals, his own medals and his grandfather's medals.