PUYALLUP, Wash. — The sacrifice Army Lt. Victor Kandle made is finally recognized in front of the Washington high school he graduated from in 1939. However, the real story is found in the back of son's, Terry Kandle, truck.
In a binder packed away in his late mother’s home, Terry Kandle found hundreds of letters written by an Army soldier to the love of his life from the battlefield.
“I knew these letters had to be here somewhere so I looked until I found them,” said Terry Kandle.
Victor fought and died in WWII, leaving behind a two-year-old son and wife. Terry Kandle grew up without his father and it wasn’t until this spring that he found these letters.
“It turned him into a real person from this phantom hero from WWII. It turned him into ‘oh this is a real guy,'” Terry Kandle said.
Letters that paint a picture of the man that he was.
“His determination was probably his most outstanding characteristic” Terry Kandle said. “He didn’t give up.”
Qualities he showed on and off the battle field most notably in 1944. Victor Kandle lead a skeleton platoon of just 16 men through the mountains of France untimely overpowering more than 50 German soldiers.
Victor Kandle would later die on the battlefield but was recognized with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. That medal sat in his wife’s closet all these years later.
That didn’t sit well with some.
“Why don’t we know anything about this? We got a Puyallup guy that won the medal of honor in WWII,” said Jack Taylor, a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Puyallup.
It took the VFW in Puyallup two years to raise the money for this monument to officially recognize Victor Kandle, a hometown boy, for his service in WWII. And on this Memorial Day weekend that’s exactly what they did.
“It was interesting because the man was forgotten and now he isn’t that’s what’s important,” Taylor said.
For Terry Kandle, it’s a chance for the public to hear the stories he’s heard all these years. An opportunity to welcome this soldier home.
“It was great recognition for my dad. Well deserved, I wish he was here,” Terry Kandle said.