Joseph Stefaniak was born in Buffalo, New York in February 1920. He lived in the good old days. His father worked part-time at different jobs and had a hard time finding work. He was a World War 1 veteran. Stefaniak went to Oregon and Washington for the CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] when he was 17. He worked in the Forestry Department putting in trails and putting up lines. It was good training to get into the Army. He worked in a foundry at one time. He was drafted on 22 April 1942. He went to Fort Niagara [Annotator's Note: in Youngstown, New York] and was asked what branch he wanted to go into. He did not know and was talked into signing up for the paratroopers. His dad asked what he had chosen, and when he told him, his father chewed him out in Polish. He went to Macon, Georgia for 13 weeks and then to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. He had to climb a 30 foot rope. He started jumping. On his third jump, he got hit by his risers and his head was bleeding. He was transferred into the 507th [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment]. On his first jump, he was a little scared, but once it opened, he liked it. Other guys said things like "Geronimo" when they jumped, Stefaniak said, "Good God Almighty". Every time he jumped, he said it.

In 1942, Joseph Stefaniak and some friends got a three-day pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to Atlanta, Georgia. They got drunk. He went home to Buffalo, New York and a guy talked him into staying over for New Year's Eve. They all got court-martialed. Their heads were shaved, they took their jump pay, took two-thirds of regular pay. They had a lot of fun though. If he had to do it, he would do it again. They got their pay back in three months. They trained with M1s [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand], mortars, bazookas. Stefaniak ended up with a Thompson sub gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun]. They went into Alliance, Nebraska and also jumped in Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Shreveport, Louisiana] during the Louisiana Maneuvers. He was hurt and spent some time in the hospital. He was released. It was 1943 and they needed bodies. Even if you limped, you were going. He was shipped to Camp Shanks [Annotator's Note: Camp Shanks, New York] and then overseas [Annotator's Note: 5 December 1943]. They landed in Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] in about 13 days. He was seasick the whole time. In Liverpool, they were fed by the French. The had powdered eggs and roast beef they could see through. He went to Nottingham, England to the 82nd [Annotator's Note: Stefaniak was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. After that, they made their jump into Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They lived in tents before that. They knew something was up. Stefaniak had a knife on his boot that was so sharp that you could shave with it. When he jumped in Normandy, he landed on solid ground and he had that chute off in seconds with that knife. He had dropped 20 miles from his drop zone. He was G Company, regular infantry. A guy named Potts and he were runners for the company. They were ready to go on the 5th [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944] and that got postponed.

[Annotator's Note: Joseph Stefaniak was in Nottingham, England preparing for the Normandy invasion.] They loaded up around 12 [Annotator's Note: midnight] and they jumped around 2:30 in the morning on [Annotator's Note: 6 June 1944]. He cut the chute off. A guy did not know the password and Stefaniak could have shot him. They met more troopers that they did know. They went with them and ended up in Graignes [Annotator's Note: Graignes, France]. They had a map and asked a Frenchmen where they were. They were not on the map. They came to a church where a Colonel and a Captain were. Stefaniak only learned their names after he returned from the war. A machine-gunner was on the left-hand side. They were crisscrossing fire as the Germans were coming in on a Sunday. The Germans overran them. Stefaniak left there with only eight rounds in his clip left. They went into Carentan [Annotator's Note: Carentan, France] where the 101st [Annotator's Note: 101st Airborne Division] was. They got supplies from them and returned to the 507th [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. Frank Newton and his crew blew up a bridge to stop the tanks from coming into Carentan. There were a lot of fights over that. It is not fun, but everybody was watching your back. On the 12th, 13th, or 14th day, Stefaniak was told to take a Frenchman to get a cow from a pasture. The Frenchman opened the gate and about 40 or 50 feet away, Stefaniak saw Germans at a crossroads. He emptied two clips at them. The Frenchman took off. Stefaniak made it back to his line and the machine-gunners were laughing and asked what happened. At a later date, he heard there were four dead Germans at the crossroads. He did not believe it. He was so scared he does not recall if they returned fire.

Joseph Stefaniak's guys blew up an armored car and took all of the money out of it. They thought the money was no good and used it start fires. In Graignes [Annotator's Note: Graignes, France], Stefaniak looked out a window of a barn and saw a German coming. He was going to take him out and the guy with him told him to leave him alone. They were told to get back to the main body. Prior to that, whenever he walked down the road, there was a little girl that would take him by the hand, take him in her house to get a hard-boiled egg. He went over in 2002 for a monument dedication. He checked into her but could not find anything. That area was burned out by the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: German Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police; abbreviated Gestapo]. He will have the image of that girl taking his hand in his mind forever. The French were collecting supply bundles and bringing them to the Americans who were running out of supplies. He is proud of the 507th [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. They left their wounded there [Annotator's Note: in Graignes, France] and the Germans killed them all [Annotator's Note: 11 June 1944]. It is all a little foggy in his mind because he did not really know where he was. He was there for the big battle. Everybody was scared. They were under fire before the battle. They had a good observation post and a good man in it; he was killed. They had very good officers. The Germans were close enough for Stefaniak to shoot. If someone went down, you could not be sure who shot them though. He was near John Henchliss [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. They are friends. Henchliss can talk about it, but Stefaniak cannot. When he got home, he hit the bottle to try and forget it. He is a Catholic, so he went and confessed. It seemed to help him. His father was very proud of him.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells a story about another soldier talking about hand-to-hand combat.] Joseph Stefaniak mostly used his knife if close. It was mostly shooting. He was too small to fight them; he took them out with his gun. They left all of their wounded behind and they were all killed [Annotator's Note: during the fighting at Graignes, France on 11 June 1944]. They lost 30 paratroopers. They got over 500 of them [Annotator's Note: Germans]. Most of the 30 were murdered too. They went to Carentan [Annotator's Note: Carentan, France] to get resupplied and then he went to his unit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. He became the runner for G Company then. A lot of Stefaniak's friends were dead when he got back. After the war, he went to the cemetery there to see if he could find his First Sergeant's grave. He had had some court martials and he wanted to ask his forgiveness. He could not make it. He came across the graves of too many men he had known, started crying, and walked right out there. In battle, you just keep going on. He never questioned his orders during the war. They left Carentan and went to Amfreville [Annotator's Note: Amfreville, France]. After they cleaned one town out, the youngsters came out with small American flags. It made him happy. Stefaniak was the runner; he took messages to Headquarters. He does not know how to describe it. He was plenty scared, and he says he is no hero. He is not going to say all the heroes are dead. He has heard that often.

After the peninsula was captured, Joseph Stefaniak and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] went back to England [Annotator's Note: on 13 July 1944]. Out of over 2,000 people who had jumped, around 700 of them came back and some of them were wounded. They went back to their tents to prepare for another jump. They were transferred to the 17th Airborne [Annotator's Note: 17th Airborne Division]. They were called out for the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] on 24 or 25 December. They had no winter gear. They were put in planes and he had a can of cheese for Christmas dinner. They landed in Belgium and were thrown on the lines. It was awful cold. After the Bulge, they were by the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. A British tank came by them with a German tied to the front of it. They moved to Luxembourg and then came back. He went so see a guy in the hospital and Mickey Rooney [Annotator's Note: born Ninnian Joseph Yule, Jr.; American entertainer] was there. Stefaniak looked at him and just walked away. He could not stay for that. Stefaniak did not make the Rhine jump [Annotator's Note: Wesel, Germany, 24 March 1945]; he was put on the ammunition truck. The convoy started over and he met up with the guys later. He does not remember why he missed that jump. He might have been in the hospital, but he does not recall. He was hit twice but only claimed one. He was hit back before this though in Graignes [Annotator's Note: Graignes, France] when a bullet grazed his leg. The second time was at the Bulge and part of his boot was shot off. His mind is almost a blank on that one. It was so long ago. There were so many things that happened to every one of them.

[Annotator's Note: Joseph Stephaniak served in the Army as a paratrooper in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division.] During the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], there was a hill they called Cake Hill. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] threw everything they had over their heads. Stefaniak and his friend Potts [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] were told to run a line to Headquarters. They laid it and came back. [Annotator's Note: Stefaniak tells a story about the line being followed that is hard to follow.] A fellow soldier jumped into Stefaniak's foxhole and he hit him with his rifle. [Annotator's Note: Stefaniak goes back to the line story.] Stefaniak had forgotten about the incident at the foxhole and was reminded at a reunion later. They went to Luxembourg and finally got into a building. They had a line for hot food for regular infantry. He traded a Luger [Annotator's Note: German P08 Luger 9mm semi-automatic pistol] he had just to get hot food. They went into Muenster [Annotator's Note: Muenster, Germany] and found a Polish DP [Annotator's Note: displaced persons] camp and they gave up a meal to feed those people. Stefaniak was sent to scrounge for food. He found a food store. There was a woman and child looking for food and Stefaniak filled a bag and gave it to them. The German in the store started saying something and Stefaniak told him to shut up. It made him feel happy for the kid who left with all the groceries he gave them. Stefaniak got drunk on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. That was a happy day. He had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to go home. His Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] was at home waiting for him. When he wrote his family, he told them he had been hit by a jeep. There was no fanfare getting home. He went to work. He tried to start a Union and got fired. He had money from gambling in camp. He was living pretty good. He went to several jobs and quit each one. He had a good life though and he is proud of what he did. He did not use the G.I. Bill. He did not get married until later years. [Annotator's Note: The interview ends with shots of his medals and memorabilia.]