I was asked to speak at Fort Gillem recently, and when I came to Fort Gillem, the base commandant asked to speak to me. So I went to see General Wagner and General Jujitsky [spelling], who happened to be both of Polish Heritage, and they told me…

"So a few weeks later when we were in town, this fella tells me, 'Hey, I saw your buddy Oskar.' I say, 'What are you talking about?' 'I know, I know, they stationed in the school over there.' So I run over to that…

"So we were sitting there, we started [to] crazily dance. First of all we were shocked. We were free. It was over. The nightmare was over. And we couldn’t react to it. One of them, all of a sudden dancing and jumping up and down in the hay. We…

"It was about close to October...Well it was crowded, about 5,000 soldiers. And Mickey Rooney was there. He was an entertainer...I was on the 6th level bunks. On the bottom of the ship and I was at the top and had to climb over everybody...They…

"When the war broke out, I was... working in Krakow living with my aunt. And on September 1st, the German Stuka planes, the fighter planes, bombed a Polish barracks, army barracks, across the street from where I was staying with my aunt. That’s…

"Two days after I arrived there, the war was over. Everybody cried—everybody cheered, and I cried on this day. Everybody was cheering, and I cried, because I couldn’t fight the Nazis, and I…Did so much damage to my family and my friends and my…

"The day I was eighteen, I was inducted into the military. And I actually became a citizen afterwards, in the military, in a place outside of Jacksonville, Florida, I was sworn into the—as an American citizen. I stayed in the military through…

“This medal was authorized by President Obama in 2012. And they had a big deal where it was presented by some general in Washington, and I think Obama was supposed to be present, but something else came up and he didn't make it, but anyway, it…

“We found that most of the palm trees had been cut off where the Navy had, with their big guns, had just blown everything on the island down. And I didn't see any live Japanese except, we saw a few dead ones. You could, every now and then, you…

Editor's note: Lorenzo Wallace shipped out of San Diego with the 51st Defense Battalion.