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A "Catch-22" Grouping


GIKyle
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I bought the items, and not the story... turns out there was a story!

 

A couple weeks back I noticed the below pair of medals mounted by the vet to the 12th AF citation certificates. The vet's granddaughter was selling them, and mentioned that her grandfather inspired one of Joseph Heller's characters in "Catch-22" As an esteemed friend mentioned, "Everyone in that group claims to have inspired someone in that movie," I took the story with skepticism, but bid on the group because regardless of the movie connection, the medals and certificates were nice, and the granddaughter said she had photos from his time in Italy.

 

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I began searching his name, and thankfully the 488th Bomb Squadron's history and monthly diaries are digitized, so I began searching. I first found confirmation of his DFC action in September.

 

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Then I found something really interesting in the September War Diary!

 

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He started to sound a lot like Milo Minderbinder...

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So this group ranks among the best pop-culture reference in my collection, but beyond that I really like it. The vet did a superb job mounting the medals, there are some great photos to accompany the group, and the granddaughter is looking for anything else that may be around. I hope you enjoyed.

 

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Very cool. I have a grouping to a 488th BS, 340th BG bombardier who got thier after Heller, but rode the nose of one of the 25s Heller had flown in. Some good books out thier about that bunch and connecting the real guys to the characters they inspired

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Very neat. A real conversation piece that would be of interest to anyone familiar with the book or movie. Which is a group that is easily 1,000,000 times the number of WW2 aviation collectors that would be interested in similar medals without such a cross-over connection.

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Thanks all- very happy with it and hope more is forthcoming. Kurt- yes it is. I don't have your superpower to have such a hunch beforehand, but was pleasantly surprised to see a 5 digit number on it!

 

Kyle

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Thanks all- very happy with it and hope more is forthcoming. Kurt- yes it is. I don't have your superpower to have such a hunch beforehand, but was pleasantly surprised to see a 5 digit number on it!

 

Kyle

 

It just looked like it should be :)

 

I bet the Air Medal is numbered too. It has that particular finish.

 

Kurt

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Great job on the research! Well done.

 

A grouping thats all the more timely (and valuable) considering that a new, multi-part TV series of Catch 22 is in production!

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Nice find! Very timely too as they just finished filming the "Catch-22" remake in Europe. I went to the Tri-State Warbird Museum in Ohio a few weeks back and their B-25 was still in "studio paint" as it had just returned from Italy. The docent said they couldn't remove the water-based paint until the studio gave them the OK in case they had to refilm a scene.

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