A dedication like the one at Puyallup City Hall on Tuesday night is “extremely rare,” Mayor Jim Kastama told the crowd gathered there.
They were there to rename the lobby outside the City Council chambers for Lt. Victor Leonard Kandle — a World War II soldier from Puyallup who was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor.
It’s not often that the city names a public facility for someone, the mayor explained.
Kastama told the crowd that every time they walk through the lobby they’ll “think of the sacrifice that someone in this community” made for Puyallup and for the United States.
“Leonard Kandle left a country that we’re all very proud of,” he said.
It was retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Jack Taylor who made the proposal in February, and “Lt. Kandle’s family, Puyallup Valley VFW 2224 and The American Legion” supported it, the city said in a news release.
Kandle was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in France on Oct. 9, 1944.
“His intrepidity and bold leadership resulted in the capture or killing of three enemy officers and 54 enlisted men, the destruction of three enemy strongpoints, and the seizure of enemy positions which had halted a battalion attack,” part of his entry on the Medal of Honor website says.