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.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hey, I\u2019m Pennsylvania.\u2019<\/p>\n
The days in New York were long.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s daily naps, which he takes religiously at 1 p.m., were an impossibility.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get more emotional in life now than I did then,\u201d Spidel said.<\/p>\n
On the Tuesday in May, Spidel said he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
KARL SPIDEL<\/p>\n
Outside of military life, Spidel moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Then, in February 2003, Spidel and others were told to anticipate the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate for not being killed or severely maimed,\u201d Spidel said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his service, he was able to return to work as a Lititz police officer. He retired in 2018.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t awkward, even though it\u2019s rare to get so many combat-wounded veterans of all ages together in a room. It was difficult to learn names.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first we were identifying with what state you\u2019re from,\u201d Spidel said. \u201c\u2018Oh, South Dakota. Hey, I\u2019m Pennsylvania.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Like family<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Instead, he talks about others.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Rhode Island\u2019s representative, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Albert Guarnieri Jr., stood behind Spidel in lines given the states\u2019 alphabetical order. Guarnieri, who insisted that Spidel call him \u201cBert\u201d and not \u201cColonel\u201d despite Spidel\u2019s politeness, discussed his plans to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Rhode Island\u2019s Purple Heart Memorial, just as Spidel once did for Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
The trip\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to meet him was like icing on the cake,\u201d Spidel said. \u201cThat\u2019s a real hero.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men didn\u2019t talk much about how they got wounded, Spidel said. Instead, they chatted about their lives.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could sit there and wave at them,\u201d Spidel said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit took the time to honor the family and caretakers of veterans, which she hadn\u2019t expected. She made friends and exchanged numbers as they moved from place to place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were all complete strangers,\u201d Tracy Spidel said, \u201cbut we felt like family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back home<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s new Purple Heart memorial, and they agreed to donate a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n
These weren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Spidel isn\u2019t sure that he still has a Purple Heart, though he might, presented at an awards ceremony one year or another. But he\u2019s focused on less material things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe I made it this far,\u201d Spidel said.<\/p>\n