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.


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