Just what did Casimir Pulaski do?

STL Today ^ | 03/06/2006 | Alexa Aguilar

[lizol]

Just what did Casimir Pulaski do?

By Alexa Aguilar ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 03/06/2006

This morning at 10, politicians and civic groups will gather at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago to place a wreath under a picture of Casimir Pulaski fighting at Savannah during the Revolutionary War.

Polish-American children learn his name at Polish school. Biographers have penned books that chronicle his military deeds. Streets in Chicago and a town in central Illinois bear his name.

But even though today is officially Casimir Pulaski Day, and many Illinois schoolchildren will enjoy a day off in his honor, many Illinoisans still don't know who he was.

"Most students would say he is 'some Polish guy we get a day off of school for,'" said John Marshall, a history teacher at East Alton-Wood River High School.

[Cagey]

"I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it," Pulaski wrote in his first letter to George Washington.

[jalisco555]

Didn't he build the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey?

[Gefreiter]

"A huge monument stands in Savannah, another in Washington..."

There's a small park named for him and a statue in Northampton, MA and Boston too.

Just don't let the hippies know he's a war hero, or they'll want to take the statue down and rename the park.

And probably hold a mock trial to find him a war criminal if they get half a chance.

[frogjerk]

Didn't he build the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey?

More like the Pulaski Speedway

:Although the Skyway carries two north-south routes, it runs mostly east-west. Going east, from Newark to Jersey City, the road is signed north, and vice versa the other way. The current speed limit is 45 miles per hour (72 km/h), although this is exceeded by nearly all vehicles, with the usual speed limit approximating 65 m/h without traffic.

I've gone 75mph on this thing and have been passed like I was standing still. There is never police on this road so there really is no speed limit. You can probably make it from Jersey City to Newark in about 2 minutes flat if you are hauling...

[Young Werther]

Yup! So that Tony Soprano could get to the Bada Bing!

Being from Joisy I also remember being taught that Pulaski offered his military training to the American Army and trained them to be fierce fighters!

[John O]

Add the towns of Pulaski, Wisconsin and Pulaski, Indiana. Also Casimir Pulaski Senior High School in Milwaukee. probably 3/4 of the south side of Milwaukee is Polish. I went to school with lots of kids with 10 or more letter last names with no vowels.

[pankot]

If Martin Luther King Jr., why not Pulaski?

[higgmeister]

Just what did Casimir Pulaski do?

Everybody in Georgia knows.

We have a really cool fort named for him too!

[higgmeister]

http://www.quantumtour.com/entity/pulaski/tour/pulaski

[dfwgator]

And why not Kosciuszko, as well.

I think Pulaski gets more recognition than Kosciuszko, just because Pulaski is easier to spell. :)

[dfwgator]

Za wolnosc wasza i nasza!!! (For Your Freedom and Ours)

[jalisco555]

More like the Pulaski Speedway

LOL. Yeah, I used to drive it a lot myself.

[Pharmboy]

When the RevWar was in its early stages, many Europeans came here claiming to be Generals and Colonels, etc., and well-versed in war. Most of them were phonies of the first order, and General Washington and his staff were very unimpressed with this crop. There were a few that stood out and earned The General's trust and performed heroicly in battle. Pulaki was one, his countryman Kosciuszko was another, the Prussian von Steuben a third, and, of course, the Marquis de Lafayette the fourth.

[pankot]

Jeszcze Polski!