Contributed photo

Ralph Sweitzer, 94, says his great nephew, American astronaut Reid Wiseman, will be taking Sweitzer's Bronze Star and Purple Heart with him to the International Space Station.

Reid Wiseman

Russ Lemmon is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects his opinion.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman is taking a pair of war medals with him for his six-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

They are his great uncles Purple Heart and Bronze Star from World War II.

Wiseman, 38, asked Ralph Sweitzer a 94-year-old Indian River County resident who fought in the Battle of the Bulge if he could take the medals to the space station, saying it would be an honor to do so.

In response, Sweitzer told him he was honored to be asked.

Wiseman will be making the flight aboard a Soyuz spacecraft with Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency and Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The launch for Expedition 40/41 is scheduled for Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Its set for 3:57 p.m. EST and can be seen on NASA TV and the space agencys website, nasa.gov.)

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Russ Lemmon: Astronaut taking local man's war medals with him to space station