FeedsWounded vet to receive Purple Heart
Representatives of the Harris-Kehrer Post of the Westland V.F.W. are planning a special ceremony on Saturday to honor Lance Cpl. Chaim Kozak, a Westland resident who was injured in Iraq.
The ceremony will take place from 1-5 p.m. Saturday at the post, which is located on Wayne Road south of Cherry Hill Road.
“We wanted to do something special for him,” said Helen Stevens, president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the post. “He’s one of us.”
The Marine is already a member of the organization and, after Saturday, he’ll be a lifetime member, according to Stevens. He will also receive plaques and awards of appreciation from dignitaries such as State Sen. Laura Toy, State Rep. Glenn Anderson, Mayor Sandra Cicirelli and U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter.
Kozak will also be presented with a Purple Heart at the time.
“It’s going to be a wonderful program,” said Stevens, who is organizing it.
The 20-year-old was wounded in April. A gunner on a Humvee, he and his crew were driving down a road on patrol when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded next to the vehicle. Two members of the crew were killed and Chaim was thrown from the vehicle, his father said. His flack jacket offered him partial protection, but the young man still suffered severe injuries from the shrapnel.
He was treated in the field and then flown to a military hospital in Germany, where his parents met him. He was later transferred to a veteran’s hospital in Bethesda, MD where he recuperated further. He’s since been released, but the healing is still ongoing.
“The shrapnel is giving him trouble, but they can do only so much at a time,” Stevens said. “He’s healing, but slowly.”
Stevens ‘adopted’ the marine long before he was named a lifetime member of the VFW. She had sent care packages to him stuffed with donated supplies ever since he was stationed in Iraq.
“I was sending him packages for two years, now I’m sending stuff to his battalion,” she said. “It’s going to continue.”
