Subject: Stormin Norman, was SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET
From: "D. Strang"
Date: 3/2/04 7:33 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: kmc1c.7697$m4.4070@okepread03

"ArtKramr" wrote
Sgt. Greigo's Flak Jacket

[snip]

We never asked him to put on his flak jacket again.

There was a famous book and screenplay written "Friendly Fire"
(Starring Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty). The story starts out
with their son getting killed by an artillery round. It's not as
dramatic a hit, as you would think. As a matter of fact, his mother
insisted on having the casket opened, and there he was; no
wounds showing.

What makes the story famous, is that the officer who investigated
the death, was Norman Schwarzkopf. He found that, while the
artillery guys were drinking on the job, they had put in the
coordinates given by the soldiers in the field, but they forgot to make
an adjustment after the spotting round was fired. They followed
with a real round (heavier), and it hit the trees causing a pre-mature
burst.

The dead soldier was hit with a sliver of metal that shot right through
his heart.

Schwarzkopf always forced his men to wear flak jackets, and he had
a list of 18 year old idiots who were dead, and their parents were
****ed off at him for not saving their sons ass.


We all wore our flak jacjcktes all the time, except for Griego. But when you
watch flak over a period of tkme it seemed that the stuff burst below us more
than level or above us. So I guess that fearing being hit from below is not all
that dumb. I guess Griego felt that way and we coudn't argue with it since he
would have been dead if he had listened to us instead of sitting on it. Giego
died about 5 year ago, and just before he died we got together and of course we
disscused tha incident. And that is what made me remember it and write about
it on my web site. We all want to do things by the book, But this is one case
where the book was wrong and my old friend Griego was right..


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer