Polish WWII vet celebrates a victorious life

Tortured by Stalin's henchmen and attacked by Hitler's forces, Aleksander Szekal almost became one of World War II's millions of victims. But he survived the Soviet Gulag and a famous battle against the Nazis, and was honored on his 103d birthday this month as the oldest living veteran of a celebrated Polish unit that helped defeat Hitler's army in Italy.

Military attaches brought greetings from the governments of Britain, Italy and Poland, which promoted him from soldier to officer. The ceremony was held at a Polish community center in western Belarus, from which he was uprooted early in the war, not to return for 60 years. In between, Szekal endured the hardships of Soviet Communism and the fight against fascism.