Retired U.S. Air Force Officer Receives Poland's Highest Honor for Humanitarian Work, RS Information Systems Announces

Business Wire, March 29, 2001

Business Editors

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 29, 2001

Paul R. Stankiewicz, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who has devoted much of his life to community and humanitarian work while building new appreciative audiences for Poland's music and art, has received Poland's highest national decoration, the Order of Merit.

The order was awarded by Poland's President for Stankiewicz' lifetime work to bring about a democratic Poland and for promoting Polish culture in America and elsewhere.

Stankiewicz lives in Hawaii where he works for McLean, Virginia-based RS Information Systems as editor-in-chief of an international defense quarterly, the Asia-Pacific Defense FORUM, under the auspices of the U.S. Pacific Command. A minority-owned information technology services firm, RSIS has a substantial presence in the Pacific as a contractor to the Air Force, Army and Navy.

A Polish-American, Stankiewicz worked for the oppressed, from Poland to Vietnam, over a distinguished, 40-year, military and public service career. It began at 19 as one of the youngest lodge officers ever elected in the Polish National Alliance, in Salem, Massachusetts, and continued as a Boston University student activist on behalf of Poland's cause.

He was a volunteer editorial staff member of the former Polish-American bimonthly Perspectives. He co-organized the national Polonia Media Conference at American University in Washington D.C. in 1976, serving also as master of ceremonies for Polish-American leaders that included U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The Order of Merit from Poland caps a lifetime of awards and recognition for his work. When Poland's freedom came in 1990, one of the final acts of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, for whom he served as Honorary Consul in Honolulu, was to formally recognize Stankiewicz's efforts with the Order of Polonia Restituta, Officer's Cross.

In 1990, Stankiewicz organized Hawaii's small Polish-American and emigre communities into an active coalition that promoted Polish culture by arranging for folk dance groups, singers, pianists and artists from mainland U.S. and Poland to perform in Hawaii.

The highlight was his society's co-sponsorship of the 1993 summer-long Polish Festival at the University of Hawaii, a convocation of film directors, artists, poets, writers, musicians and scholars from Poland, England and the U.S.

Stankiewicz is a former international political-military affairs officer with a specialty in Asia. He has received five other foreign decorations, 15 U.S. military decorations, and two orders of knighthood. During his first Vietnam War tour, he was decorated for heroism for saving the lives of nine U.S. personnel trapped for 26 hours by enemy forces near Hoi An in 1968.

In 1969, he was honored for his humanitarian work as well. On his own, he organized the "Hue Airlift" during the Tet offensive. He arranged for U.S. Army and Vietnamese Air Force aircraft and helicopters to fly in volunteer medical teams and emergency food for civilians.

He received a citation from the Vietnamese National Assembly, the 7th Air Force Award for Best Civic Action program in Vietnam, and Vietnam's Armed Forces Honor Medal, First Class.

He served a second Vietnam tour on special assignment with the American Embassy, as advisor to Vietnam's second largest province's radio and other media. When Vietnam fell in 1975, Stankiewicz was assigned to plan and organize a camp in Florida within 36 hours for 5,000 Vietnamese refuges. Observers hailed the effort, for which he later was awarded one of the first U.S. Humanitarian Service Medals.

In 1986, he was honored by the U.S. Defense Department for his role in promoting U.S. relations with China. He was the first journalist to be hosted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with whom he lived for three weeks. In 1989, he was a member of the first journalist group to interview the KGB in the Soviet Union.

In 1995, he won the Citizen of the Year Award in Honolulu for his work in the Pacific from the Federal Executive Council.

On receiving Poland's Order of Merit earlier this year, Stankiewicz discussed its special significance. "Since the Order honors lifetime community activities on behalf of Poland's freedom and culture - 45 years of volunteer work - it means someone actually noticed," he said. "That this honor was given by a free Poland, for which I have worked so long, makes this doubly significant."

Rodney P. Hunt, CEO and president of RS Information Systems, said Stankiewicz' achievements "are a tremendous inspiration to all of us to devote time to those things that matter to us -- whether it be a cause, a culture or our community."

Stankiewicz retired from the Air Force in 1986 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He lives with his wife, Judith Anne, in Mililani, Hawaii. The couple has five children and eight grandchildren.

Paul Stankiewicz can be reached at home for interviews at 808/623-5039 or at work at 808/477-0760.