SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET

Sgt. Greigo's Flak Jacket

Emilio Griego was our engineer/tail gunner. He was short smiley fellow with a
shy grin and a shy manner. When you spoke to him he would look at the ground,
smiling but always answer you with a snappy "Yes Sir" and get to work with
great energy and dedication. He was a very good engineer and Paul (Paul Shorts
Lake Charles LA our pilot) depended on him a lot to work with the mechanics to
keep "Willie" in good shape. Very often he would be up all through the night
working with the mechanics to make sure all would be well for the morning
mission. He was a good soldier, a fine fellow and an asset to our crew that we
all appreciated. But he did have one shortcoming, he wouldn't follow orders. A
particular set of orders that is. He would never wear his flak jacket. He would
sit on it. We would scream at him to put the damn jacket on. He would smile and
say "yes sir, I'll wear it". But on the next mission it was the same thing.
Ordering, screaming, yelling, threatening could never get Griego to wear that
damn flak jacket. But he always said, "yes sir. I'll wear it next time". But he
never did. Then on the 24th of March 1945 we hit the Viersen commuications
center. Mallory and his crew were shot down. No chutes were seen to open. We
took some heavy flak hits but kept on going. On landing out came Griego holding
up his flak jacket for all of us to see. He had been sitting on it again and it
was imbedded with chunks of flak and the canvas cover torn to shreds. Griego
had a triumphant smile from ear to ear. Sitting on that flak jacket had saved
Griego's life. We never asked him to put on his flak jacket again.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

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

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Sgt. Greigo's Flak Jacket

Emilio Griego was our engineer/tail gunner. He was short smiley fellow
with a
shy grin and a shy manner. When you spoke to him he would look at the
ground,
smiling but always answer you with a snappy "Yes Sir" and get to work with
great energy and dedication. He was a very good engineer and Paul (Paul
Shorts
Lake Charles LA our pilot) depended on him a lot to work with the
mechanics to
keep "Willie" in good shape. Very often he would be up all through the
night
working with the mechanics to make sure all would be well for the morning
mission. He was a good soldier, a fine fellow and an asset to our crew
that we
all appreciated. But he did have one shortcoming, he wouldn't follow
orders. A
particular set of orders that is. He would never wear his flak jacket. He
would
sit on it. We would scream at him to put the damn jacket on. He would
smile and
say "yes sir, I'll wear it". But on the next mission it was the same
thing.
Ordering, screaming, yelling, threatening could never get Griego to wear
that
damn flak jacket.

So you let a man deliberately and repeatedly disobey a direct order? Didn't
the officers on your crew have any balls at all?

Subject: SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET
From: "Ragnar"
Date: 3/2/04 7:08 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:


"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Sgt. Greigo's Flak Jacket

Emilio Griego was our engineer/tail gunner. He was short smiley fellow
with a
shy grin and a shy manner. When you spoke to him he would look at the
ground,
smiling but always answer you with a snappy "Yes Sir" and get to work with
great energy and dedication. He was a very good engineer and Paul (Paul
Shorts
Lake Charles LA our pilot) depended on him a lot to work with the
mechanics to
keep "Willie" in good shape. Very often he would be up all through the
night
working with the mechanics to make sure all would be well for the morning
mission. He was a good soldier, a fine fellow and an asset to our crew
that we
all appreciated. But he did have one shortcoming, he wouldn't follow
orders. A
particular set of orders that is. He would never wear his flak jacket. He
would
sit on it. We would scream at him to put the damn jacket on. He would
smile and
say "yes sir, I'll wear it". But on the next mission it was the same
thing.
Ordering, screaming, yelling, threatening could never get Griego to wear
that
damn flak jacket.

So you let a man deliberately and repeatedly disobey a direct order? Didn't
the officers on your crew have any balls at all?


No balls at all. At least not as much as you had when you flew all your
missions.. Tell us about it


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

ArtKramr wrote:

Subject: SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET


He was a good soldier, a fine fellow and an asset to our crew
that we all appreciated. But he did have one shortcoming,
he wouldn't follow orders. A particular set of orders that is.
He would never wear his flak jacket. He would sit on it.
We would scream at him to put the damn jacket on. He would
smile and say "yes sir, I'll wear it". But on the next mission
it was the same thing.

Ordering, screaming, yelling, threatening
could never get Griego to wear that damn flak jacket.



After all your postings about "we always followed orders without
question" you post this.

A while back you posted about the pilot who ignored repeated orders from
your CO until he finally broke a B-26.

Something does not fit here.
A Sgt. ignores direct orders with impunity to save his own skin, yet
officers would not break radio silence to save their squadron mates from
a flak trap.

Did people in your unit follow orders or not?

Dave

"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.

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

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...

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've seen several references to troops in Vietnam (and probably other
places) sitting on their
helmets while being choppered as a protection for certain vital personal
equipment from small arms
and the like. 'Death from Above' v "Castration from Below'.

IIRC, this actually gets featured in the movie 'Apocalypse Now'.

The CO

Subject: Stormin Norman, was SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET
From: "The CO"
Date: 3/2/04 9:07 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:


"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...

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've seen several references to troops in Vietnam (and probably other
places) sitting on their
helmets while being choppered as a protection for certain vital personal
equipment from small arms
and the like. 'Death from Above' v "Castration from Below'.

IIRC, this actually gets featured in the movie 'Apocalypse Now'.

The CO


Interesting. Maybe Griego was smarter than all of us.



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

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: SGT. GREIGO'S FLAK JACKET
From: "Ragnar"
Date: 3/2/04 7:08 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:


"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Sgt. Greigo's Flak Jacket

Emilio Griego was our engineer/tail gunner. He was short smiley fellow
with a
shy grin and a shy manner. When you spoke to him he would look at the
ground,
smiling but always answer you with a snappy "Yes Sir" and get to work
with
great energy and dedication. He was a very good engineer and Paul (Paul
Shorts
Lake Charles LA our pilot) depended on him a lot to work with the
mechanics to
keep "Willie" in good shape. Very often he would be up all through the
night
working with the mechanics to make sure all would be well for the
morning
mission. He was a good soldier, a fine fellow and an asset to our crew
that we
all appreciated. But he did have one shortcoming, he wouldn't follow
orders. A
particular set of orders that is. He would never wear his flak jacket.
He
would
sit on it. We would scream at him to put the damn jacket on. He would
smile and
say "yes sir, I'll wear it". But on the next mission it was the same
thing.
Ordering, screaming, yelling, threatening could never get Griego to
wear
that
damn flak jacket.

So you let a man deliberately and repeatedly disobey a direct order?
Didn't
the officers on your crew have any balls at all?


No balls at all. At least not as much as you had when you flew all your
missions.. Tell us about it

I don't have to fly missions in WW2 to know that deliberately and repeatedly
disobeying a direct order reflects badly on any officer who condones the
activity. That was as true in the AAC then as it is now in the USAF.

So why wasn't the man disciplined after deliberately and repeatedly defying
a direct order?

their parents were
****ed off at him for not saving their sons ass.

I didn't know that Schwarzkopf was the investigator. Interesting.

"Friendly Fire" was first published in The New Yorker, as an anti-war
piece. It was my first experience with the new perception that war
should be safe. I remember reading it with mounting incredulity:
artillery rounds are fired, they explode, people get killed as a
result. Hopefully the people getting killed are on the other side, but
this is never a certainty. Starting about 1968, this was no longer
acceptable.

How many people are like me, wincing whenever someone is killed in
Iraq? I keep a sort of subconscious tally, the way I'd measure the
miles around an island when I've set out to walk around it. Six months
of losses in Iraq equal about one day in Vietnam at the height of the
American involvement, yet the Good People sigh about the "quagmire"
we're in.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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