‘Once-in-a-lifetime award’: Two World War II veterans honored with Quilts of Valor

Two 101-year-old World War II veterans were honored for their military service Thursday by each being wrapped in a red, white and blue Quilt of Valor at Naperville’s Independence Village senior living facility.

The presentation of the hand-stitched blankets conducted by Rotary Club of Naperville and the local chapter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation recognized the work of and sacrifices made by Peter Pierro and Ray Svejnoha.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime award,” Quilts of Valor volunteer Susie Wing said. “It’s not a birthday present. It’s not a Christmas present. It’s not something that you go to the store and buy. It’s like they got some ribbons to wear on their uniforms for things they did in service time.”

Across all chapters, the Quilts of Valor Foundation produces somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 quilts every month and has so far presented close to half a million quilts to veterans

“I’d like to thank each and every one of you for this great honor,” Svejnoha said after receiving his quilt. “I really appreciate it and after all, I ain’t a young man anymore, but I’m close.”

The Rotary Club of Naperville has been honoring veterans with the Quilts of Valor Foundation for the past 10 years after member and former Rotary Club president Alma Jones attended a class reunion in Pratt, Kansas.

“My typing teacher from high school was awarded with a Quilt of Valor and when I asked him what this was all about, he said that it was the first time since he returned home from Vietnam that he had been thanked,” Jones said. “It was so meaningful to me that I said, ‘This is something that has to continue in my town in Naperville.’”

While gifting a quilt has become an annual tradition for the club, Jones noted that Thursday’s program was particularly special. Rotary Club Board member Nathan Lara, who works for Independence Village, introduced Pierro and Svejnoha to the club and Jones saw a unique situation she could not pass up.

“We had such a special opportunity to meet Ray and Peter and determine what vital, 100 years young gentleman they are,” Jones said. “We thought it was very fitting with America 250 and our 10th anniversary of doing this program later this year, it just all seemed to dovetail into the perfect opportunity.”

A child of Italian immigrant parents, Pierro grew up in LaSalle alongside four siblings.

“My mother and father came here because they wanted to build a better life,” he said. “They taught us to love America and the United States. We were told to speak English here, so we spoke English and I went through the public schools … we were a very patriotic family.”

He and his three older brothers all served during World War II, with Pierro joining the Navy after graduating from high school. He was stationed on the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands, where he maintained the electrical systems of the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft.

After returning home from the war, Pierro went on to pursue three degrees at Northern Illinois University, including a doctorate in educational psychology. A lifelong scholar, Pierro took his love for learning everywhere, from teaching in a one-room rural schoolhouse to a professorship at the University of Oklahoma.

He is the author of 14 books and, though he has retired from teaching, his pursuit of scholarship has not slowed. These days, he writes for a sports psychology blog, beyourbest2day.com.

Svejnoha, who grew up near Cicero, entered military service when he was still in high school. He missed his high school prom as a result, though he made up for it some 82 years later when a teacher and group of students from Metea Valley High School decided to throw him one.

Military service as a member of the 4th Air Service and Command took Svejnoha to Australia, Indonesia and beyond.

“It’s adventurous the first couple of months, but then it becomes, ‘Hey, this is serious,’ when you hear a couple bullets flying around you,” he said of his time abroad.

When he returned home, he was greeted by his older sister.

“She met me at the station and then took me home,” he said. “That was the only greetings I had because I was by myself without a group of men.”

Svejnoha went on to become an electrician, working on many of the high-rise buildings along Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

“It was adventurous. It was different,” he said. “I never worked at the same thing and that’s where I got all my experience. I worked on anything and everything I could possibly do as an electrician so that when they ask for an electrician, (they say), ‘Is he qualified?’ Oh definitely.”

Both men said they felt honored to receive a quilt. Ceremony attendees, in turn, felt honored to witness the event and celebrate the veterans of the so-called greatest generation.

“They survived World War II and they helped our country become a free country to where we are today,” said Courtney Sanders, executive director for the Chicagoland Chapter of Blue Star Families. “If it wasn’t for service members like them, we wouldn’t have the luxuries that we are afforded today.”

cstein@chicagotribune.com