Alex Mike Penkala

Born: Niles, Michigan, August 30th, 1924
H&W: 5’9” 160 lbs. (175cm / 72 kg)
S/N: 35549002
Enlisted: Feb 27th, 1943. Volunteered for the Airborne shortly thereafter.
Unit: Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Nickname: Junior
Resting place: Plot I, Row 9, Grave 5, Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial

Alex's early life

Alex's parents were Polish immigrants who emigrated to the United States in 1907. Despite knowing each other before their departure, Mary and Alex Penkala Sr. only married in 1908. They moved around the American Midwest, before settling down in South Bend, Indiana, in 1918. There. Mr. and Mrs. Penkala raised a large family and lived out the rest of their lives. At home, the Penkalas spoke Polish. Despite the fact that Mr. Penkala's English was not very good, he managed to secure a job at the Studebaker automobile manufacturing company. He would keep this job for several years before changing career paths, finding a job only 7 minutes away from home at the University of Notre Dame. There, at the university, he and all of his children would all work as janitors, maids, technicians and anything that could be done for the school. Mr. Penkala remained at Notre Dame until his death in 1963.

Mrs. Penkala was the quintessential loving homemaker. Mary Penkala, the bedrock of the family, brought no less than 13 children into this world. Her first child, Irene, was born shortly after her marriage in 1908, and her last child, for whom she would give up her life during childbirth, was born in 1928. For 20 years, Mary Penkala dedicated her heart, soul and body to the creation of life. When she arrived in the US in 1907, it was only her and her fiancée ; when she passed away 20 years later, while giving birth to her 13th child, the Penkalas were a proud, hard working, tight-knit, loving, Polish-American family.

On August 30th, 1924, Mary and Alex Penkala had a baby boy they named Alex Mike Penkala Jr.

Alex, who was mostly referred to as "Junior" by his family members, was born into the heart of the roaring 20s, and spent most of his childhood living through the Great Depression. However, being the 10th of the Penkala children, Alex benefited from the size of his family, which sustained itself through the hard work of all its members. Whenever and wherever a job opportunity presented itself, a Penkala took employment and pitched in. Thanks to this, though times were hard for them too, the Penkalas were able to make it through the Depression.

Alex played basketball in junior high school. A devout Catholic, he went to went to Central Catholic High School, but dropped out during his Sophomore year. Sometime in his teenage years, Alex met a charming young woman named Sylvia, who would be his girlfriend throughout most of the war years. In a letter home to his sister, Alex wrote : "You should know that Sylvia really doesn’t know how much I love, or should I say, like her. I don’t even go no place because I keep thinking of her so much." It would be a little more than two years before Alex received his Dear John Letter from Sylvia.

Top left, circled in red is Alex when he played basketball on the Junior Varsity team at his high school.

Cook school, Airborne school and the Screaming Eagles

In February 1943, Alex and three of his friends left home to enlist in the service. When Alex first enlisted, he had no clue what destiny had in store for him. For Alex, things started in the kitchen. Before joining the paratroopers selection program, he went through 8 weeks of cook school, which he mentioned in a letter home to his sister: "I received your letter and was I glad to hear from you. As you probably know by now, I am going to cook’s school for eight weeks, as I am going to make the best of it." However, during his time in the kitchen, between cooking, scrubbing, and killing time with his friends, "the paratroopers" came up in conversation. Supposedly, it was a new sort of soldier that was being introduced into the United States Army. On top of jumping out of airplanes, these guys were the most elite soldiers the Army had, receiving an extra 50 dollars a month in pay for the dangers that went along with being a paratrooper. Something about this description captured his imagination, and in September 1943, Alex Penkala boarded the RMS Samaria and sailed to England as a bone fide member of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne.

Alex (middle), with his two best friends, Don Malarkey (left) and Skip Muck (right).

Though Alex is regarded as one of the core members of Easy Company (being that he served with the company from Normandy to Bastogne), he only joined the company after they'd left Camp Toccoa (where the original regiment was formed). Therefore, Alex had to integrate into the company upon his arrival and make a place for himself. Luckily, he hit it off with the most beloved member of the company, Skip Muck. Skip, for whom I wrote a separate blog post about five years ago, was very similar to Alex in many ways. He too came from a large Catholic family, and had joined the Airborne seeking an exciting adventure. Alex was assigned to the 60mm mortar squad of 2nd Platoon, along with Don Malarkey, Skip Muck, Brad Freeman, and Ed Sabo. The squad leader was Bill Guarnere. Bill says, "Muck and Penkala were real quiet, nice kids. Same with Freeman."

In August of 2017, during my induction as an Honorary Member of the 506th, I met Brad Freeman. It was an immense honor to shake the same hand that had shaken Alex's and Skip's all those years ago.

PFC Bradford "Brad" Freeman, E Company, 2-506 PIR, 101st Airborne.

A memory that many of the Easy Company veterans shared was how welcoming the duo of Skip and Alex had been to a replacement, Joe Lesniewski, who arrived in the company later in the war. Joe hit it off with Skip because together they loved to play music, and he hit it off with Alex because together they could speak Polish. Thanks to his friendship with Skip and Alex, Lesniewski had no trouble making friends with any other soldier in the company.

Joe Lesniewski, 1943.

D-Day

On a foggy June morning, the men of the 101st Airborne assembled at Uppotery field. It was June 4th and they were getting ready mentally for what they were going to do. The plan was that the night of June 4th the men would load up and they would fly to Normandy. But the weather looked rainy and unfit for a huge assault. Back a headquarters, General Eisenhower was debating whether or not he should launch the armada. His meteorologist recommended that he call it off.

Easy Company received the message that the jump would be postponed through their Commanding Officer Thomas Meehan. Later that day, a movie was shown. The next morning however, the men formed up at Upottery Field again. This time, they knew it was for real.

At 10:15pm, on June 5th, 1944, the men of E Company, 2nd Battalion , 506th, 101st Airborne boarded their airplanes. With the help several other troopers, Alex climbed up onto his C-47, carrying over 130 pounds of equipment, ammo and grenades. The flight over the English Channel proved to be violently bumpy, loud and cold. Despite receiving airsickness pills, some men still got airsick, and had to get up to vomit in the back of the plane. It is unknown up to this day whether those pills were supposed to help the men with airsickness or to help calm them down before going into combat. One thing is for sure, the flight was unpleasant.

At approximately one in the morning, Alex leaped out of his airplane and floated down to earth, where he found himself completely separated from his unit. Though not much is known of Alex's combat experiences, many accounts have told that he hit the roof of a barn on that jump, got tangled up, cut himself loose, and found his way back to his unit. Being that most men in his squad had been killed, unbeknownst to Alex, he'd been made acting Corporal of his squad. He would find this out in the morning when he was reunited with his best friend, and squad mate, Skip Muck. Together, they took part in the capture of Carentan and the battle of Bloody Gulch.

Market Garden

On September 17th, 1944, exactly one year after arriving in England, the 101st Airborne jumped into Holland for operation Market Garden. Their objective was to capture two bridges near the towns of Son and Veghel. The bridge at Son had been destroyed by the Germans. The next day the 101st attempted to capture a bridge at Best, but that also proved unsuccessful. Throughout the battle, the 101st Airborne repeatedly got pushed back by German troops. Operation Market Garden, for the allied troops, would be considered a failure, as they suffered 18,000 casualties. Alex, however, survived the battle, once more, unharmed.

The Battle of the Bulge

On December 18th, 1944, the 101st Airborne received information that the German forces were going to make one last push to try and break the main line of Allied defense in the area near Bastogne, Belgium. With very short notice, the 101st Airborne was deployed to the area. The unit was sorely under-equipped and the men entered the battle low on ammunition, food, warm clothes, shoes and anything else that a soldier needs to fight.

The objective for the 101st Airborne in this battle was to hold off the German assault. This was going to be Adolf Hitler's last push to try and break the line. If he succeeded, every man knew the consequences would be horrible. On the night of the 20th of December, the 101st Airborne was completely surrounded. Underestimating the grit and resolve of the paratroopers, the German generals decided to continue to their objective, leaving behind only one division to fight the Americans. On the 22nd of December, 1944, one of the German generals proposed an honorable surrender to the Americans, saying that the outnumbered paratroopers would be treated with respect. The American general in command, General McAuliffe, answered with his now legendary response: "Nuts!"Click here to read the article I wrote about that event.

That one word gave a huge morale boost to every man in the 101st Airborne. Even though the men had been relentlessly bombed for the past 5 days, they were never going to give up. On the 26th of December 1944, Patton's Third Army broke through and opened a passage out of Bastogne, thus ending the siege of Bastogne. The stubborn German forces continued counterattacking the American soldiers. On January 9th, 1945, instead of being relieved, Easy Company spearheaded its first assault upon the small town of Foy. The Germans initially pushed back the American forces and proceeded to bomb "Jack's Wood" (Bois Jacques), where the men of Easy Company were dug in.

On January 10th, 1945, during the bombing of Jack's Wood, Alex Penkala and Skip Muck's foxhole took a direct hit from an 88mm shell. Both troopers were killed instantly.

Originally interred in France, Alex's remains were moved to where he currently rests today, at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial.

Back home in America, a memorial service was held at 11 a.m., on Sunday, February 4th, 1945, at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church at the University of Notre Dame.

Skip and Alex, best friends on earth and together forever in Heaven.