Thomas J. Kolesa and Family
This site is dedicated to Thomas J. Kolesa, Anita Kolesa, and the family they built.
Thom was a child, a teenager, a husband, a Marine, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and a friend. Above all, he was an example of how a life can be lived. He influenced people by lifting them, not by standing above them.
He wrote throughout his life. From those writings he assembled his memoir, It Was Our World War Too. He sold copies, and he gave many more away to veterans and to the families of veterans. Before he died, he asked that the book be made freely available. That wish is the reason this site exists.
Thom and Anita are interred at the Louisiana National Cemetery, Zachary, Louisiana. The inscription on their niche reads: FOREVER TOGETHER.
If this story means something to you, please consider a gift to a veterans charity. A few places to start: DAV, The National WWII Museum, IAVA, or a local veterans organization you already trust.
Thom Kolesa
Thom’s war came a generation after the first world war. He served as a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant in the invasion, battle, and securing of Okinawa. Anita helped build gliders used in the closing fight in Europe and B-24 Liberators that flew in both theaters. It was, as he wrote, their world war too.
He documented that journey so the people who lived it would not disappear into a footnote. The book is not a general history of the war. It is the record of one couple who met as schoolchildren, married young, were separated by service, and stayed together for 72 years.
As a schoolboy he also made his first book, never published: Great Artists of World Recognition.
Anita Kolesa
From Thom’s writings:
I was a second grader when Anita came into my life. She was a first grader. We went to the same school. Her niece, Verna Mae, was my classmate until we graduated from high school. That means we had a good contact person as well as a good chaperone.
Things were rather normal until Anita moved into our neighborhood. We did the expected things. We walked to school with the crowd. Soon we walked as a couple. I even carried her books. Sometimes we even held hands.
We went sleigh riding, ice skating, took long walks, and enjoyed each other’s company.
Our friendship developed into a serious relationship. Within a few months we were engaged, and in several more months we were married.
Never, not even for an instant, did either of us consider we were not made for each other.
I was eighteen. Anita was seventeen. Many said, “It won’t last.” They were right. It ended last week, but only on this earth. We will always be together.
What kind of mother was she? Look at Tim and Leslie, and those of you who knew Scott, and you will have no trouble answering.
What kind of daughter was she? Anita took care of her mother for more than thirty years. Her mother moved in with us when her father died. That is the kind of daughter Anita was.
What kind of daughter-in-law was she? Anita and I both had jobs, and she bought a leather coat with a mink collar. My mother liked it very much. One day, after they had been shopping together, my mother told Anita how much she liked the coat but could never afford one. Guess who went home with that coat? That is the kind of daughter-in-law Anita was.
Because we married before she finished high school, Anita wanted her diploma. She went to the superintendent and asked for his advice. He told her to start where she had left off and attend classes. Anita took off her high heels, put on bobby socks, and graduated. This high-school dropout, with three children, went on to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and then to St. Louis University for her master’s degree. When I suggested a doctorate, she said it was time to start paying back.
In the midst of our early married life there was a war, and we had to be separated. While I was in the Marine Corps, she did not sit and mope. Whenever possible she came to live near my station so we could be together. That is when she took jobs in defense plants. Anita helped build gliders that mattered in the closing days of the European war. Later she worked as a Rosie the Riveter, helping build the heavy bombers that helped end the war in the Pacific and bring me home.
What kind of wife was she? You have just read a few of the hundreds—no, thousands—of reasons why I think, no, why I know, we were perfect for each other.
Amen.
Did Anita do the World War II work only because of me? Yes. But she did not stop there. While we were living in Philadelphia during the Bicentennial, she traveled to Korea to escort a plane of orphans already adopted by American parents. She did this as an employee of Philadelphia Travelers Aid. Her flight to Seoul had a layover in Tokyo. Anita made it to Tokyo. Thom didn’t.
When we were back in New Orleans, Travelers Aid asked her to return. They loved her and the work she did.
After the Vietnam War, she worked with refugees at Indiantown Gap. She did more than help them get settled. She hosted family gatherings with their sponsors.
There is more. Philadelphia, March 15, 1977—the Ides of March. Anita and three of her Travelers Aid colleagues were held overnight by a mentally ill man with a switchblade. One of the staff was pregnant. He threatened to cut her throat if the police came, then pressed the knife against her stomach and the baby. He took a swipe at Anita and missed.
Anita later told reporters she thought it was time to be brave or die. She became the aggressor and took the knife away from him. Disarmed, he panicked. Everyone screamed. The police came in and took over.
Where was I? They had called me. I was watching from the room below.
A reporter wrote that Mrs. Kolesa seemed calm enough afterward, as her husband made her a cup of tea. A television reporter called her “a gutsy grandma.”
The next day Anita received a call from First Lady Rosalynn Carter about the way she had handled the hostage situation. They also talked about the need for better funding for the care of mentally ill people.
Between then and now there were many happy events, and new memories, as Anita and I continued on our road to eternity.
The book
It Was Our World War Too is a personal memoir and a love story: from grade-school friends, to high-school sweethearts, to husband and wife for 72 years. They shared a similar heritage, survived the Depression, and carried the war together—he in the Pacific, she in the plants that built the aircraft.
Thom wrote the book in his nineties. Anita died on November 2, 2014, at 89. Thom died on January 4, 2021, at 96.