Vanessa Sylte, the canteen manager at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1463 in Lititz Borough, has overheard war stories for more than a decade.
She met Karl Spidel when she first started tending the bar 11 years ago, when Spidel pretended to not be a member as a joke.
Turns out Spidel was a Purple Heart recipient — an award given to Americans wounded or killed while serving the U.S. military — and a retired Army sergeant from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
They’ve been friends since. She has watched Spidel serve as a dedicated volunteer and quartermaster for the VFW, raise $17,000 for a Purple Heart memorial on the VFW grounds, and assist other veterans.
Last year, Sylte nominated him for the 2026 Purple Heart Patriot Project Mission, a biennial trip for combat-wounded veterans and their families run by the nonprofit National Purple Heart Honor Mission. The trip honors only one Purple Heart recipient from each U.S. state, an experience Sylte thought would connect Spidel to like-minded people.
“I know it’s hard for people to understand. The Purple Heart is such a distinguished award, but it’s one you do not want to get,” Sylte said. “They understood what it takes to get it.”
She had long forgotten about it by the time Spidel, a retired Lititz police officer, got the call. She nominates veterans from the VFW for awards all the time, and she rarely hears back.
From April 27 to May 1, Spidel represented the state of Pennsylvania on a trip to New York, visiting various military memorial and historical sites with dozens of combat-wounded veterans and their families repping their respective states.
On a recent Tuesday in May, Spidel showed up to the VFW bright and early as he always does, and sat down to talk about the trip. He wore a sweatshirt featuring his VFW’s emblem, and invited Sylte to sit beside him.
WHAT’S THE PATRIOT PROJECT?
The National Purple Heart Honor Mission is a New-York based nonprofit founded in 1997 focused on Purple Heart medal recipients
The nonprofit hosts the Purple Heart Patriot Project mission biennially. The trip, which started in 2019, takes one Purple Heart veteran from each state on an all-expenses paid trip to historic sites, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor museum, the Sept. 11 memorial, and Washington’s Headquarters in New York.
It’s unclear how many Purple Heart recipients live in Pennsylvania, or how many Pennsylvania veterans were nominated for the trip. In February, the nonprofit declined to share how many people in Pennsylvania applied, though a press release said Spidel was chosen from hundreds of candidates.
The trip is free, including food, lodging and transportation for veterans and their families. In 2023, when the last Patriot Project trip took place, the nonprofit spent $241,000 to fund it, according to tax records.
In 2023, Army Staff Sgt. Vanessa Schieber, a two-time Purple Heart recipient from Northampton County, represented Pennsylvania. Despite the Patriot Project taking place every two years, the trip did not come together in 2025 due to logistical issues, according to a nonprofit spokesperson.
‘Hey, I’m Pennsylvania.’
The days in New York were long.
Spidel and his wife, Tracy Spidel, spent the morning of April 27, a Monday, driving the 3 1/2 hours to the Hampton Inn in Newburgh. Spidel packed a few VFW sweatshirts, button-up shirts, loungewear and jeans. He forgot his slacks. Spidel’s daily naps, which he takes religiously at 1 p.m., were an impossibility.
Upon check-in, Spidel was bestowed a swag bag of Purple Heart merch and pulled into a private room with a camera crew and an interviewer, asked to recount his experience getting wounded.
“I get more emotional in life now than I did then,” Spidel said.
On the Tuesday in May, Spidel said he didn’t want to talk much about his personal experiences. He focused on the trip, and the camaraderie he felt there. But he shared bits and pieces.
Spidel, 58, grew up in Tampa, Florida, and joined the U.S. Navy in 1986, loading weapons onto military aircraft, just after graduating high school. He stayed in the Navy for four years, and it only took him a few days after he left to join the Army as an infantryman.
U.S. Army Sgt. Karl Spidel, of Lititz, a Purple Heart recipient, was chosen by the National Purple Heart Honor Mission to represent Pennsylvania during the 2026 Purple Heart Patriot Project trip from April 27 to May 1, 2026.
KARL SPIDEL
Outside of military life, Spidel moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, his father’s hometown, after the first Gulf War. In 1994, Spidel served as a police officer in the Chambersburg area, and later joined the Lititz Borough Police Department in 1995.
After Sept. 11, Spidel wanted to rejoin a unit. He met an Army recruiter in the parking lot of Giant at the Lancaster Shopping Center and signed paperwork. He was soon assigned to the 324th Military Police Battalion, a team deployed to Raven Rock Mountain Complex, a military bunker commonly known as Site R, on the Pennsylvania-Maryland border.
Then, in February 2003, Spidel and others were told to anticipate the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Spidel deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. He was wounded twice. The first, on July 9, 2003, from shrapnel when insurgents tried to throw a grenade into his vehicle, and it detonated before entry. The second, less than two months later, when he was involved in a blast from an improvised explosive device. Spidel said he was the only member of his battalion wounded twice, though he never got a second Purple Heart officially.
“I’m very fortunate for not being killed or severely maimed,” Spidel said. “I’m grateful for that.”
After his service, he was able to return to work as a Lititz police officer. He retired in 2018.
At the hotel, nonprofit volunteers gave Spidel a lanyard with his name and state. At the first dinner, the group ate sub sandwiches, chips and desserts. Spidel said it wasn’t awkward, even though it’s rare to get so many combat-wounded veterans of all ages together in a room. It was difficult to learn names.
“At first we were identifying with what state you’re from,” Spidel said. “‘Oh, South Dakota. Hey, I’m Pennsylvania.’”
Like family
Spidel tends to soft-pedal his heroism. He said he feels grateful his wounds were minor enough that he recuperated in-country, unlike those who were flown away for more intense treatment.
Instead, he talks about others.
The pool of veterans ranged in age and service, and by their disabilities. He talked about Matthew King, a former Army specialist repping Louisiana who was attacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan during a firefight, and Tyson Walsh of New Mexico, a two-time Purple Heart recipient who fought hand-to-hand in Afghanistan in 2013. Florida’s representative, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Denise Woodfin, gifted Spidel a veteran challenge coin, a memento from her time on the U.S.S. Cole, the ship where a nearby suicide bomb left her injured while refueling in Yemen.
Rhode Island’s representative, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Albert Guarnieri Jr., stood behind Spidel in lines given the states’ alphabetical order. Guarnieri, who insisted that Spidel call him “Bert” and not “Colonel” despite Spidel’s politeness, discussed his plans to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Rhode Island’s Purple Heart Memorial, just as Spidel once did for Lancaster County.
The trip’s national honoree, Maj. James Capers Jr., served with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam and was the first Black Marine to lead a reconnaissance company, credited with the successful evacuation of his nine-member team from an enemy ambush despite severe injury. A bill signed into law in March authorizes President Donald Trump to award Capers the Medal of Honor.
“Getting to meet him was like icing on the cake,” Spidel said. “That’s a real hero.”
The men didn’t talk much about how they got wounded, Spidel said. Instead, they chatted about their lives.
The veterans and their families had packed days of bus trips, food and events. They visited the New York City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza and the Sept. 11 Memorial, and laid wreaths and flowers. They took a group photo at the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, which featured the history of the Purple Heart award, beginning with George Washington.
At Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, Spidel met with a security forces unit and marveled at a weapons line, including a small, handheld grenade launcher he never got to use in combat that has a range of about three football fields. Armored humvees, different from the thin-skinned kind he rode in Iraq, welcomed them. A day later, Spidel watched foreign troops, marked by flags on their uniforms, arrive at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point via aircraft for lunch.
There were non-military affairs, too. The Spidels ate fancy dinners. Spidel enjoyed a patriotic concert at Aquinas Hall Theater dedicated to the Purple Heart veterans. The nonprofit paraded them across the stage and introduced them to the audience.
On a Manhattan boat tour, the Spidels realized Sylte and her husband were simultaneously departing for a cruise on the New Jersey side of the river.
“I could sit there and wave at them,” Spidel said.
Tracy Spidel, who met her husband sometime in 2000 at former Lititz coffee shop Spill the Beans, said she enjoyed her time, too. During Spidel’s time at war, Tracy Spidel said she and her family sent him letters and care packages. They had their first date in September 2004, after he returned home. They married in 2008.
The nonprofit took the time to honor the family and caretakers of veterans, which she hadn’t expected. She made friends and exchanged numbers as they moved from place to place.
“These were all complete strangers,” Tracy Spidel said, “but we felt like family.”
Back home
The Spidels left Newburgh at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 1. They had breakfast together, said their goodbyes, and despite a tiring week, stopped at a friend’s house in New York.
They discussed the potential to visit some of the veterans in the future. Spidel took home a long list of phone numbers the nonprofit gave him in case he ever wants to reconnect with his fellow Patriot Project alumni.
And back home, Spidel gave away most of his swag bag. His Purple Heart polo shirt went to Sylte. One of his T-shirts went to his wife, and the other to his daughter, who helped Sylte nominate him for the trip. When he next met with the Lititz VFW board, he asked whether the group could muster some funds for Rhode Island’s new Purple Heart memorial, and they agreed to donate a few hundred dollars.
These weren’t the first times Spidel gave away military memorabilia. Spidel gave away his original Purple Heart award when fellow Purple Heart recipient and Lititz VFW member Tony Coniglio died in 2008, when his family needed one for his shadow box.
Spidel isn’t sure that he still has a Purple Heart, though he might, presented at an awards ceremony one year or another. But he’s focused on less material things.
“I can’t believe I made it this far,” Spidel said.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.