In storytelling, we look for the pivotal moment. The scene where a character’s path shifts and nothing is ever the same. For my great-uncle Stephen (Steve) Marcisak, that moment arrived on a cold February morning in Italy in 1944. He was twenty-nine years old, a commissioned officer leading men in combat. In an instant, he became a prisoner of war. His story is one of the most documented examples of WWII POW aftermath I have encountered in my own family research — a long, painful ledger of a man who survived the war but never quite outran it.1
The Rise of a Professional Soldier
Steve Marcisak did not wait to be drafted. On January 6, 1940, he walked into the recruiting office at Fort Bliss, Texas, and enlisted in the Regular Army. He was twenty-six years old and had worked as a bartender at Paul’s Bar & Grill and as a laborer for the Zenobia Nut Company in Manhattan. He was ready for something different.
The Army noticed him quickly. Assigned to the 35th Infantry at Schofield Barracks in the Territory of Hawaii, he climbed through the enlisted ranks with steady purpose. By May 1942, he had reached Staff Sergeant, serving as Mess Sergeant. That same year, Captain James L. Dalton II recommended him for Officer Candidate School, describing Steve as “highly intelligent,” “direct,” and “forceful,” and citing his “outstanding qualities of leadership.”
Steve earned that praise. He traveled from Hawaii to Fort Benning, Georgia, completed Officer Candidate Course #124, and on December 12, 1942, received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. The bartender from Greenwich Street had become an officer of the United States Army.
A Soldier at Anzio
After a year of stateside training and brief service in North Africa, Steve joined Company B, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. By late 1943, he was in Italy, serving as a Platoon Leader on the front lines.
February 18, 1944, was the turning point.
Near a location known as “The Factory” in Carroceto, Steve commanded an outpost approximately one and a half miles from the main line. German forces surrounded the position. The Captain of Company A, to whom Steve’s platoon was attached, surrendered his command.
In that moment, Steve’s status changed from Platoon Leader to Missing in Action.
His family in New York waited for news through March and into spring. The Army confirmed his capture in May 1944. He was Prisoner of War #3188, held at Oflag 64 in Germany.
(See “Beyond the Barbed Wire: What Stephen Marcisak’s POW Journal Reveals About Survival” for the full story of his captivity, including his transfer to Stalag VII-A in Moosburg.)
Liberation and the WWII POW Aftermath
Steve Marcisak spent fourteen months as a prisoner of war. He was liberated and returned to military control on April 29, 1945, when Allied forces reached Stalag VII-A. On paper, he came home a decorated officer. He received a promotion to First Lieutenant in August 1945 and earned the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
The man who returned from Germany, though, was not the forceful leader Captain Dalton had described in 1942. The records from 1946 to 1948 reveal a slow and painful unraveling.
The Ledger of a Broken Career
Assigned first to recruiting duty in Missouri and then to occupied Germany, Steve began accumulating a different kind of service record. What followed is a textbook portrait of WWII POW aftermath: a decorated officer slowly undone by what captivity had cost him. In March 1946, military police arrested him in Dallas, Texas, for being drunk in uniform in a public place. The police report described him as “staggering,” with “blood shot” eyes and “very incoherent” speech.3 He spent time in a stockade, received a formal reprimand, and forfeited $50 in pay.
This was not an isolated incident.
By late 1946, stationed with the 349th Infantry in Germany, his commanding officers grew deeply concerned. On October 12, 1946, while serving as Battalion Duty Officer, Steve authorized a vehicle for the personal convenience of two soldiers. The vehicle was later damaged. An investigation confirmed he “had been drinking while on duty as duty officer.”
The efficiency reports from this period are painfully direct. A December 1946 evaluation stated that Steve had “developed habits that are not compatible with the qualities of an officer” and that he “drinks to excess and to the detriment of his position.” His rating officer acknowledged the root cause — and in doing so, named the WWII POW aftermath plainly — noting this behavior was “possibly as a result of having been a prisoner of war for a considerable period.”
The Army tried to find a workable role for him. His fluency in Slovak and Polish made him an asset in a Labor Supervision Company. During this period, he was married to Helen and had a stepdaughter, Barbara, and an adopted daughter, Caterina (later renamed Stephanie).
The internal battle continued.
By June 1948, while assigned to the 16th Infantry, officers found Steve “stretched out on the ground in front of the BOQ,” so intoxicated that he had to be “carried bodily” to his quarters. The following month, Lieutenant Colonel Emanuel Robertson recommended his release from active duty, stating that Steve was “unable to perform his military duties” due to being “habitually intemperate in the use of intoxicants.”6 The Army had no framework for WWII POW aftermath. It had a form for surplus officers.
Steve Marcisak was officially released from active duty on December 28, 1948, listed as physical disability, with hypertension among his final medical notations.
The True Turning Point
We tend to think of a soldier’s turning point as the day they went to war. For Steve Marcisak, the real turning point was that February morning in Carroceto when an outpost fell and a Captain surrendered his command.
Steve survived the war. He survived fourteen months of captivity, a forced march across Poland, and liberation. But the shadow that captivity cast over him never fully lifted. His service record stands as a precise, clinical document of WWII POW aftermath — what it looked like, year by year, in one man’s life. The “forceful” Sergeant of 1942 and the “incoherent” Lieutenant of 1948 were the same man. Between them stood a turning point that changed everything.
YOUR TURN!
Have you found ancestors whose military records reveal the long aftermath of war? Share your stories in the comments.
Want to read more about Steve Marcisak’s wartime experience? See “Beyond the Barbed Wire: What Stephen Marcisak’s POW Journal Reveals About Survival.”
- Unless otherwise noted, all details about Stephen Marcisak’s military service are drawn from: Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, Missouri; obtained through TwistedTwigs Genealogy, received 10 December 2025. ↩︎
- Letter, 1st Indorsement, “Applications for Attendance at Infantry Officers Candidate School,” Headquarters Company Thirty Fifth Infantry, Schofield Barracks, T.H., 28 January 1942; Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File (see note 1). ↩︎
- Report of Delinquency, Headquarters 482nd SCU Dallas MP Detachment, Dallas, Texas, 18 March 1946; Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File (see note 1). ↩︎
- Report of Investigation, Headquarters Second Battalion 349th Infantry, APO 88, 13 October 1946; Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File (see note 1). ↩︎
- WD AGO Form 67, Efficiency Report, Company G 349th Infantry Regiment, APO 88, 31 December 1946; Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File (see note 1). ↩︎
- Letter, “Request for Release of Surplus Officer,” Headquarters 16th Infantry Regiment, APO 1, 12 July 1948; Stephen Marcisak (1st Lt., O-1303751), Official Military Personnel File (see note 1). ↩︎
Linke to: TwistedTwigs Genealogy
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