Military Service Leads

To New Brother-in-Law
The Fighting
Luecke Family
By Monte Miller | Missourian Staff Writer

East of New Haven, near Boeuf
Creek, stands the crumbling re-
mains of a Texaco station where the
Luecke brothers posed for a photo
while three of them were home on
leave during World War II.
The Luecke family owned and
operated the filling station and wa-
tering hole until 1974.
Wilbert Luecke served with the
Army in the Pacific Theater, Jack
was in Europe and Felix stayed
stateside and served with the Army
Air Corps in Miami Beach, Fla.
The brothers were all home at
the same time visiting their par-
ents and older brother Rudy, who
was already married and had
children when the war broke out.
Jack and Charlie
While serving in the medical
corps and driving ambulances
Jack Luecke met Charlie Grech.
Grech, came to the United
States in 1926 at the age of 6
from the small Mediterranean
country of Malta, between Sicily
and North Africa.
The family settled in Wayne
County, Mich., and Charlie en-
tered the service just weeks after
Pearl Harbor at the age of 21 in
January 1942.
When Charlie met Jack they
became friends and over the
next three years they served in
Bronze Star campaigns in central
Europe, including Normandy,
Northern France, Rhineland and
Ardennes.
Bronze Service Star campaigns
do not indicate that a Bronze
Star for Valor was earned by the
soldier.
Instead they mean that the sol-
dier was physically present in the
location of combat with his unit
during the Bronze Service Star
campaign. According to his Army
discharge papers, Charlie “Drove
ambulance days and nights over
all types of terrain in the Unit-

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The Missourian Page 28 November 8, 2017