Hank Kudzik, who left high school in Bethlehem to join the Navy and served on a submarine that attacked Japanese warships in the epic Battle of Midway, died Saturday at a hospital in La Mesa, Calif. He was 99.
His daughter, Wanda Frecks, said his heart had been failing. In 2022, he moved from Allen Township to the San Diego area to be with her.
“America has lost a national treasure, one of the few left,” said Frecks, herself a Navy veteran. “He loved his country and served it well. He will be missed.”
A gunners mate on the USS Nautilus, Kudzik went on eight patrols that included stalking the enemy in the pivotal clash at Midway, carrying Marines to Japanese-held Makin Island for a raid made famous in the 1943 film “Gung Ho!” and rescuing American nuns trapped on Bougainville Island. After that, he had six more patrols as chief gunner on the sub Gar.
Last year, he was one of three Midway veterans who received standing ovations at a dinner marking the Pacific battle’s 81st anniversary, held on board the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.
“I was frightened,” he said of his state of mind in 1942. “I wanted combat. I wanted to see what I could do.”
In 2019, Kudzik got red-carpet treatment at the gala Hollywood premiere of the film “Midway,” which he gave a thumbs-up. Ten years earlier, he was the only Nautilus crew member present for the San Diego commissioning of the amphibious assault ship Makin Island.
Kudzik proudly wore his old uniform and could talk about his combat experiences for hours. He was a familiar face at the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project Roundtable, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s World War II Weekend near Reading and the Allentown Band’s annual tribute to veterans at Miller Symphony Hall.
A son of Polish immigrants, Kudzik quit Liberty High School after Pearl Harbor. His first assignment on Oahu was helping to remove sailors’ bodies from the capsized battleship Oklahoma. He volunteered for submarine duty and got a berth on the Nautilus. He was just 17 when the big boat went after the Japanese at Midway.
Early June 4, 1942, the first of four days of fighting, the Nautilus was strafed by an enemy plane and fired torpedoes at a battleship and destroyer.
Hours later, the Nautilus attacked an aircraft carrier. A destroyer tracked the sub and dropped depth charges, causing underwater explosions louder than anything Kudzik had ever heard. He was in the control room, operating the trim manifold, which moves water from one tank to another to keep the boat level. An officer asked how much water was moved, but the boy was too rattled to speak.
The captain saw Kudzik’s distress, put his arm around him and said, “You’re doing a good job.” When another charge went off close by, he patted Kudzik on the back and said, “Hang in there. We’re not going to sink.”
The Nautilus fired three torpedoes at the carrier, but the first two missed and the third was a dud. Still, the Navy credited the sub with assisting dive-bombers from the carriers Enterprise and Yorktown in sinking three Japanese carriers.
At home in Bethlehem after the war, Kudzik finished high school and married Jacqueline Boemio, a seamstress who made military uniforms during the war. They had two daughters, Wanda, a travel agent who was a Navy cryptologic technician, and Renae Behrens, a nurse. Jacqueline died in 2016. Renae died the next year.
Kudzik was a Navy reservist for a dozen years and left the service as a chief petty officer. He worked for cement-industry supplier Fuller Co. as a draftsman and sales engineer, and retired in 1985.
In 2012, he received an Audie Murphy Award, named after one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II, from the American Veterans Center. The next year, he was honored at the Battle of Midway Commemoration in Washington.
Frecks said a celebration of life will be held in the Lehigh Valley at a time and place to be announced. Her father will be interred in Bethlehem Memorial Park alongside Jacqueline.
David Venditta is a freelance writer.
