With A Nudge, Embassy Honors Baker’s Request Stepdaughter Can Attend Medal Of Honor Ceremony

Vernon Baker’s German stepdaughter now can attend a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House in his honor, thanks to nudges from Idaho’s U.S. senators.

That reversal of fortune came in record time Thursday after the American Embassy in Berlin reconsidered Alexandra Pawlik’s case. “I came down and told Vernon and we jumped around the living room,” said Heidy Baker, after hearing the news from her daughter.

“I’m so happy that it’s straightened out,” Vernon Baker added. “Now we can become a family.”

Baker, 77, will become the first living black World War II veteran to receive the Medal of Honor. Six other black soldiers will receive the medal posthumously.

The St. Maries resident has never met his stepdaughter. A week ago it appeared it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

Pawlik was refused a tourist visa by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin because she couldn’t show she had compelling ties that would guarantee she would return to Germany. Those ties include close family in Germany and full-time employment, a State Department spokeswoman said.

Pawlik works from home as a tailor and didn’t have the necessary employment credentials. She also is not a German citizen, because citizenship isn’t automatically conferred on people who are born there and Pawlik has never applied.

It is extremely common for people to use the tourist visa as a means to immigrate to the United States. So the State Department commonly refuses people without solid ties, the spokeswoman said.

Once the State Department realized Pawlik was coming to attend the Medal of Honor ceremony Jan. 13, they were quite willing to issue the visa. “They asked her, ‘Why didn’t you tell us your stepfather was a big shot in the Army?”’ Heidy Baker said.

Pawlik had tried to explain the White House ceremony during her Dec. 23 visit to the embassy, she said. That was dismissed as fiction.

“For something this important, I was determined we would do all we could,” Idaho Sen. Dirk Kempthorne said. “It just didn’t make sense to me that we were going to allow this to be diminished because a family member couldn’t be there” especially when the U.S. government had a role in her not being there.

“There is so much this country owes to the Vernon Bakers of this country. I’m glad it turned out so well,” Kempthorne said.

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