POLIDORI-KLECA JOAN M. Of Winter Park, FL, passed away peacefully on November 29, 2013 at the Orlando V.A. at the age of 89. Born in Daisytown (Pittsburgh) PA, she grew up in the Greenwood section of Altoona, graduating from Altoona High School in 1942, and from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing. Joan then joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1944, eventually attaining the highest rank possible for a woman, a full Colonel. Along the way, Joan received a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from the University of New Mexico. Attaining a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout. She performed her graduate work at the University of Michigan (Hospital) for five years. Well traveled and educated, Colonel Kleca spent time in surgery and as an instructor for the Army in Heidelberg, Germany, her favorite town of all. She worked as a recruiter, an instructor and in operating rooms with the 5th Mash Unit in Europe, as well as numerous bases throughout the U.S.A. (Sandia Base, NM, Fort Sam Houston, TX, Letterman Hospital, San Francisco, CA). Joan did two tours of duty in Vietnam as a major, one in Long Binh with the 24th Evac. Hospital and another helping set up Saigon Hospital. Joan was at the hospital when it was overrun during the Tet Offensive, gunfights in the hallways earning her the nickname, "Two-Gun Polly", as she was forced to have two 9 millimeter handguns at her hips. Colonel Kleca was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Service Medals and a National Defense Service Medal. Joan's appetite for knowledge was insatiable, taking up and completing any course or class she could find within her off-duty hours. From a counterinsurgency training course in Letterman Hospital in San Francisco to a burn treatment course in San Antonio, Texas. She even mastered an auto maintenance training course, ably replacing a water pump on a car for her certificate. In the Orlando VA Medical Center's Community Living Center (CLC), where she resided for her last few years, Joan tried comforting others, trying to make her own bed as well as her roommate's bed. Joan's lively personality and willingness to make everyone else feel special will be sadly missed, mostly by her nephews, nieces and her brother-in-law, Robert G. Guido of Bellmawr, NJ. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dominick and Maddalena Polidori of Altoona, PA; her brother, David of Waynesboro, PA; and her sister, Norma V. Guido (nee Polidori). Colonel Kleca would make a fine role model for girls in that all she accomplished in schooling and the military was an uphill battle in a "man's world. She was the only woman present in many situations during her career. Friends will be received from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, December 7, 2013 at MAUK & YATES FUNERAL HOME, INC., 719 North Fourth Avenue, Altoona, PA. A Funeral Service will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. at the funeral home with Father Carl Spishak officiating. Committal will be at Calvary Cemetery, Altoona, with Military Honors. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, go to www.woundedwarriorproject.org/donate, or send via mail to P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675. Send condolences at post-gazette.com/gb
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