Photo By Staff Sgt. Stanford Toran | U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Eveleen Soroko, forwarding operating site advisor with 510th...... read more read more
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POZNAN, Poland — U.S. Army Reserve officer Eveleen Soroko was promoted to the rank of major during a ceremony on Nov. 20, 2025, in Poland—marking a milestone not only in her military career, but also in her family’s history and the country her ancestors once called home.
Maj. Soroko, who serves with the 510th Regional Support Group, a brigade-level element of the 7th Mission Support Command, was promoted in front of family and friends who traveled from the United States, Poland, the Czech Republic, and United Kingdom to attend the ceremony. Held shortly after Poland’s Independence Day on Nov. 11, the promotion carried deep personal and historical significance spanning multiple generations.
Soroko’s family history traces back to Poland and the Czech Republic, where earlier generations lived through decades of war, displacement, and communist rule.
Her great-grandfather, Adam Ziembicki, born in 1886, served as a sergeant major in the Polish Army. He lived with his wife, Zofia Ziembicka, and their children in Volhynia—then part of Poland and now located in modern-day Ukraine.
The Ziembicki family had three children, including daughters Irena and another sibling, and a son, Kazimierz Ziembicki, who later survived the war in Poland.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Adam, Zofia, and their children were deported from Volhynia to Bavaria, Germany, where they were forced into labor. During this period, Irena Ziembicka worked as a translator.
While in Germany, Irena met Antoni Stanisław Soroko, a Polish pilot serving with the Allied British Royal Air Force. The two married during the war and later welcomed their first child, Marian Soroko.
Adam Ziembicki died in 1947. In the years that followed, Irena and her family emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—beginning a new chapter that would, generations later, lead back to Europe in U.S. Army uniform.
Maj. Soroko’s heritage has played a defining role in shaping her path and her success. Today, she serves as a forward operating site manager in the European theater—an assignment that brings her military service full circle to the region where her family’s history is rooted.
For Soroko, being promoted in front of her family was a first-time experience and one she says she will cherish for the rest of her life.
From growing up in New Mexico, to supporting the Texas National Guard’s response to Hurricane Harvey, to combat deployments in Afghanistan, Soroko has served across a wide range of missions. Yet none carried the personal significance of this moment—being promoted to the rank of major, her first field-grade rank, with multiple generations of family present to witness the occasion.
While serving with United States Europe and Africa’s G/3/5, Soroko played a key role in support rotational forces in Poznań, Poland, in 2022—helping lay the groundwork for enduring U.S. Army presence and multinational cooperation in the region.
“I am incredibly honored and proud to serve my country, and for the first time in 18 years, to share this moment with my family and dear friends,” Soroko said. “I love you all, and thank you for coming.”
Soroko reserved her final words of gratitude for her Polish family members who traveled to attend the ceremony, emphasizing the historical weight of holding the promotion in Poland.
“It is the highest honor to have this ceremony here, in our homeland,” Soroko said. “Our freedom was earned through the blood of our people, and that legacy lives within us. It drives us to keep moving forward—and to never stop fighting for freedom.”
Her promotion in Poznań served not only as recognition of her professional accomplishments, but also as a powerful reminder of the enduring connection between service, sacrifice, and family—across generations and across continents.
-30-| Date Taken: | 12.31.1969 |
| Date Posted: | 12.24.2025 12:11 |
| Story ID: | 555086 |
| Location: | POZNAN, PL |
| Hometown: | HOUSTON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, From Volhynia to Poznań: Army Officer’s Promotion Honors a Family Legacy Forged Across Generations, by SSG Stanford Toran, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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