Hickam Field Survivor's remains make final journey through Hickam

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lauren Main
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  Approximately 850 Airmen lined the road, standing rigidly at attention. Their right hands slowly rose to their brow and the salutes rippled down the line as a white hearse approached.

The remains of Wilfred Toczko, a retired Army Air Corps Captain, passed around Atterbury Circle on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Jan. 11. A survivor of the attacks on Dec. 7, 1941, Toczko always dreamed of coming back to the base he affectionately knew as Hickam Field.

Though he had intentions of returning for the 70th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony on Dec. 7, 2011, he was unable to make it due to an unexpected illness; this was the last hurrah he had been hoping for.

Toczko's career began as a young enlisted Soldier at Hickam Field. He was a youthful 20-year old private first class on Dec. 7. At the time, Toczko was assigned to the 72nd Bombardment Squadron and was just about to begin a shift on guard duty at 7:30 a.m. that morning.

When the roar from the Japanese planes darting overhead interrupted the peaceful Sunday morning, Toczko drew his .45 caliber pistol and fired.

Moments later, he and a fellow Soldier set up a water-cooled machine gun to fire back at the Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately, the attacks had knocked out the bases water supply. Thinking quickly on their feet, Toczko and his counterpart broke in to the Coca-Cola machines in the barracks building and began pouring Coke into the liquid cooling compartments of the machine guns in order to make them operable.

Though Toczko displayed notable heroism Dec. 7, his fight was far from over.
When the United States entered World War II, Toczko shipped off for flight training and learned to fly the B-24 Liberator Bomber.

In 1944, only three years later, Toczko was shot down over Germany during a bombing run. He miraculously survived the crash, but was held as a Prisoner of War until the war ended in 1945.

Despite immeasurable tragedy and the hardships he'd faced up until that point in his life, Toczko still had more to give to his nation.

Growing up, Toczko was the son of Polish immigrants and had lived in Poland as a teenager prior to WWII. So, while already fluent in Polish, he also learned to speak German and Russian from immersion courses in Germany during the post-WWII occupation, and later Japanese when he attended the Army Language School.

In the years after the war ended and a new one began, the U.S. Government now looked to Toczko for his language skills. Toczko used his foreign language abilities to join the ranks of the Army Counterintelligence Corps, and targeted the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo. He was credited with planting an informant in the embassy who supplied the United States with intelligence that aided the country during the Cold War.

Toczko was also responsible for the arrest of a German spy who enlisted in the Army under a false name. The Army sergeant was attempting to sell classified documents to the Soviet Union when he was caught.

He finished his career at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., working on classified communications equipment and unmanned aerial surveillance system developments.

During his years in service, Toczko became one of the best and most accomplished Counterintelligence Corps special agents in history.