Amid a five-day celebration of Veterans Day in Houston County this week, a local vet was moved by an unlikely source.

One of the activities for St. Mary’s School students was to write to a veteran and invite him or her to attend a special mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Caledonia, followed by a short program and lunch in the gym on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

“I got invited by a 12-year-old girl named Jaelyn Foellmi from Brownsville who goes to school at St. Mary’s,” said Dave Grahek, an area resident and a United States Army medic who earned three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. “It was such a nice letter, and I wanted to meet her.”

So he wrote her back and attended the program.

“He even took time off of deer hunting to come,” said Grahek’s wife, Carol, emphasizing the priority her husband made in coming to the event.

Grahek said he had also been invited to the Houston Elementary School program on Friday. He's a member of the Houston American Legion Post 423.

Purple hearts

Grahek was drafted into the Army on Flag Day, June 14, 1965. He started with basic training at Fort Knox. Then he was sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, for advanced individual training (AIT) to become a combat medic, not thinking he was ever going to be one. ...

While the memories aren't all happy, Gahek is proud of his service.

“(A Purple Heart) is something you never want to get," he said. "But I got three.”

The Purple Heart Honor Roll shows his date of incident as May 23, 1966, with the status of wounded in action.

Currently, the Purple Heart, per regulation, is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917, has been wounded, killed, or has died after being wounded by enemy action.