Ronald Dolecki, an Oil City native and Army veteran, stepped on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to receive a Prisoner of War medal after 18 years of fighting to earn the recognition.
Dolecki, a 1963 Venango Christian High School graduate and the son of Joseph and Rose Dolecki, served in the Army from 1963-1966.
He was captured by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) with two other men in July 1965. He escaped two weeks later after crossing the border into Sudan, and the ELF stopped keeping such sharp eyes on the men.
This made Dolecki angry, and so he began fighting to win the medal.
Van Hollen gave Dolecki’s case a lot of publicity and also told Dolecki’s story on the Senate floor.
Mears contacted Dolecki after reading an article about him in the Baltimore Sun newspaper and told him he was going to fight for him.
Finally, after nearly two decades of seeking the POW medal, Dolecki proudly received his honor Thursday.
