MARION, Ill. – An Illinois family has been reunited with a deceased World War II veterans military honors that had been missing for several years.

In a special ceremony last week at VFW Post 1301 in Marion, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs turned over a lost Purple Heart and other medals to relatives of the late Stephen J. Grabowski.

Grabowski, a Chicagoan and son of Polish immigrants, fought in the European theater during the war. Army Private Grabowski was a rifleman in Company B, 473rd Infantry.

On April 15, 1945, Grabowski, 27 at the time, participated in Operation Grapeshot, the Allies’ final attack in the Italian Campaign. A German grenade hit the bunker Grabowski was in, burying him under debris and paralyzing him from the waist down.

Germany capitulated less than a mon

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