Lory Curtis

 

Ben,
        I see Rick Sweet has been promoting my book, thanks Rick.  As
you know the book is about my Dad's experiences in the 517th in the form
of letters he wrote home to his mother.  There are over 130 letters.
Many of our 517th family who have purchased the book have commented how
much they liked it.  Thank you to all of them for such kind words.  If
there are others out there who would like a copy please have them
contact me at lcurtis@utah.gov or cell phone 801 232-0009. 
Thanks
Lory Curtis, son of Bud Curtis, HQ, 1st BN

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President Darrell Egner

 

> Pretty fascinating - and great for your next trivia challenge. 
**************************
> "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and 
> degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing 
> worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about 
> than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has 
> no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of 
> better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill
>
> **************************
>
> Compiled by Col.  D.G.  Swinford, USMC, Ret. and
> history buff.  You would really have to dig to get this kind of ringside
> seat to history:
>
> 1.  The first German serviceman killed in WW2 was killed by the
>    Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was 
> killed by
>    the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was
>    Lt.  Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
>    So much for allies.
>
> 2.  The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN.
>    He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about
>    his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.)
>
> 3.  At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was Called
>    CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's
>    45th  Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private 
> train was
>    named "Amerika."  All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
>
> 4.  More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps.
>    While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being
>     killed was 71%.
>
> 5.  Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average
>    fighter pilot.  You were either an ace or a target.  For instance,
>    Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes.
>    He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
>
> 6.  It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th
>    round with a tracer round to aid in aiming.  This was a mistake.
>    Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers
>    were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing.
>    Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire
>    and from which direction.  Worst of all was the practice of
>    loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that
>    you were out of ammo.  This was definitely not something
>    you wanted to tell the enemy.  Units that stopped using tracers
>    saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
>
>             YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE THIS ONE....
>
> 7.  When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did
>     was pee in it.  This was pretty universal from the lowest private
>     to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and
>    Gen Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
>
> 8.  German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City.
>    but it wasn't worth the effort.
>
> 9.  German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.
>
> 10.  Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several
>      Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army
>      until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for
>      the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and
>      forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured
>      by the US Army.
>
>            AND ..........THE BEST FOR LAST....
>
> 11.  Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian
>      troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands.  21 
> troops
>      were killed in the firefight.  It would have been worse if there 
> had
>      been any Japanese on the island.

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