‘Extremely rare’ dedication honors Puyallup WWII soldier awarded the Medal of Honor
A dedication like the one at Puyallup City Hall on Tuesday night is “extremely rare,” Mayor Jim Kastama told the crowd gathered there.
They were there to rename the lobby outside the City Council chambers for Lt. Victor Leonard Kandle — a World War II soldier from Puyallup who was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor.
It’s not often that the city names a public facility for someone, the mayor explained.
Kastama told the crowd that every time they walk through the lobby they’ll “think of the sacrifice that someone in this community” made for Puyallup and for the United States.
“Leonard Kandle left a country that we’re all very proud of,” he said.
It was retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Jack Taylor who made the proposal in February, and “Lt. Kandle’s family, Puyallup Valley VFW 2224 and The American Legion” supported it, the city said in a news release.
Kandle was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in France on Oct. 9, 1944.
“His intrepidity and bold leadership resulted in the capture or killing of three enemy officers and 54 enlisted men, the destruction of three enemy strongpoints, and the seizure of enemy positions which had halted a battalion attack,” part of his entry on the Medal of Honor website says.
Kandle was also awarded “the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and French Croix de Guerre,” the city’s news release said.
He was killed in action on Dec. 31, 1944.
Taylor told The News Tribune his first thought was for the city to rename the pavilion at Pioneer Park for Kandle about 10 years ago, but that the city wasn’t interested.
That didn’t deter him.
He approached the Puyallup School Board and got approval to install a monument to Kandle outside Puyallup High School, where Kandle graduated in 1939. Fundraisers and donations covered the cost, he said, and the monument went up in 2019.
A few years ago, the government closed an Army Reserve facility named for Kandle on Portland Avenue in Tacoma, about a mile south of Interstate 5.
Kandle’s son, Terry Kandle, asked Taylor to help find a home for the bronze plaque and framed photo of Lt. Kandle from the building.
The plaque, which weighs more than 60 pounds, said “Kandle Hall.” If they renamed the City Council chambers lobby, Taylor thought, they could hang it there.
Taylor also tried to find somewhere to get the weathered plaque refinished.
“I called around all over the place,” he said.
Finally, a company in Mukilteo, Queen City Plating, said it could refinish the plaque, and that it wanted to do it for free. Now the green patina is gone.
“It looks a lot different than when I gave it to you,” Kandle said when it was unveiled Tuesday night in the lobby.
A couple dozen visitors attended the dedication, including state and local leaders, veterans and Kandle’s family.
‘You’ve done a great job.’
Terry Kandle thanked the mayor and the City Council and those behind the renaming campaign.
“This isn’t their first effort in recognizing my father in this community,” he said. “You’ve done a great job.”
He was about 2 years old when his father died.
He brought the roughly 500 letters that his father wrote his mother during the war, which he found after his mother passed away.
The family displayed them at the ceremony Tuesday, along with Lt. Kandle’s medals, photos of him, and a black and white video of the Medal of Honor ceremony in 1945.
Terry Kandle pointed out how humble his father’s account of what happened was in one of the letters to his mother, compared to the official record.
One of Terry Kandle’s son’s, David Kandle, read the letter at the ceremony.
It briefly describes what happened and ends with Lt. Kandle telling his wife that he’d saved up about $500. He’d only spent $2 or $3 the past few months, he told her, and was sending her the rest.
David Kandle told the crowd that he just got back from a trip to visit his grandfather’s grave site at the Epinal American Cemetery in France.
It was one of the best days of his life, he said. He was struck by how people of different nationalities, including French and German citizens, thanked him for his family’s service.
‘What someone did to defend our country’
Asked about his motivation behind the time and effort he put into honoring Kandle, Taylor, 85, told The News Tribune he’s a retired Air Force officer and that he used to teach American government and world history at Spanaway Lake High School.
“I’ve always had an interest in the military and military history, in particular,” he said.
The South Hill resident said he doesn’t take much credit for his efforts and that he was surprised and grateful for the support he received for his idea to rename the lobby.
“I just felt that there was some need to give some recognition to him, so that our kids and our community can learn more about what someone did to defend our country when called upon,” he said.
The South Hill resident flew in Vietnam as a forward air controller and has over 5,000 hours of flying time, he said.
“It’s an awesome thing to come face to face with someone who has been awarded the Medal of Honor,” he said. “It touches me inside somehow.”
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
