Maspeth plaza named after WWII veteran

A plaza in Maspeth was named after World War II veteran Stanley E. Wdowiak over the weekend. Photo by Walter Karling

By Jacob Kaye

An intersection in Maspeth was renamed to honor a local veteran over the weekend.

The ceremony ahead of Veterans Day saw the plaza on the corner of Flushing Avenue and 64th Street renamed to honor Stanley E. Wdowiak, a World War II Navyman who lived in the neighborhood until his death in 1988.

About 100 neighbors came out to the naming, which was sponsored by City Councilmember Robert Holden and the American Legion Kowalinski Post.

Wdowiak was a celebrated military man, having received the Navy Cross Citation for helping to capture the German U-Boat 505 in 1944.

The Maspeth resident, who was 19 years old at the time, was one of the first U.S. military personnel to go into the captured submarine as a member of the boarding party.

The U-Boat was one of six German submarines captured by the Allied forces during the second World War.

Though he lived his adult life in Queens, Wdowiak was born in Brooklyn in 1925. He’s buried at Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County.