FLDCK Stanley Stephen Swiontek

Stanley Stephen Swiontek was born on November 2, 1918, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, John Swiontek and Victoria Wierzbicka Swiontek, were Polish immigrants. Stanley was the fifth of six children.

His older brother Andrew died the day before Stanley’s sixth birthday.

Stanley was close to his mother, who kept all of the letters he wrote home while he served in the Marine Corps.

Stanley joined the Marines on January 20, 1940, and was  a field cook on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

For years after the attack, Stanley’s mother Victoria would become sick every December 7th. The memory of her favorite son, Stanley, trapped inside the sinking ship tore her apart. His youngest sister, Rosemary, recalled how exhausting it was for her mother to relive the events of that day every year.

On the 75th anniversary of the attack, Stanley’s niece, Judy Hedlin remembered how difficult it was for her family to come to terms with the tragedy. As a child, she couldn’t understand each year as December arrived and Christmas was soon on the way, why her mother and grandmother, while putting up decorations and baking cookies, were crying and so sad and that everyone else seemed happy.

Sources: The Chicago Sun-Times; Marine enlistment records and muster rolls; Census; Illinois birth record. Photographs courtesy of nephew Richard Martinotti & U.S. Marine Corps. This profile was written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.