Red Dirt Diaries: 94-Year-Old WWII Veteran Receives Promotion

High praise is being bestowed upon a World War II veteran living in Norman.

Emilia Fudala, 94, joined Poland’s Women’s Auxiliary Service as a teenager, after being released from a Russian work camp.

She drove a Dodge munitions truck to the front lines after being trained by the British Army in Egypt.

“It was a miracle I survived,” Fudala said. She just recently started feeling comfortable talking about her war experience.

She survived the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, where Allied forces suffered more than 50,000 casualties.

“You don’t have time to be scared. You do your work. You just prayed,” Fudala said.

She said she drove her truck with her rosary around her hand.

On Monday, Polish Brig. Gen. Jaroslaw Strozyk personally presented Fudala with a promotion to first lieutenant.

“She’s a really example, now a days to women soldiers. We have much more now, but you were the first,” Brig. Gen Strozyk said.

“If you lost your freedom, you lost yourself,” Fudala said about her motivation during the war.

Fudala turns 95 next month.