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When I was young around 1964 in San Diego, California, I bought an old silver cigarette box at a garage sale. It had a name engraved on the top but did not give it a second thought at the time. I glued a strip of cardboard over the engraved name, decorated it with the name “DAD” and gave it to him on his birthday.

Move forward to present day. My father has dementia and was moved into a home for fulltime care. It was my job to take care of the few effects he still had at home. One was this old cigarette box he used to keep his lose change in for many years. I took it home and put it on my shelf. A couple days ago, I removed the old cardboard and glue from the top of the silver box and found the following engraved in the lid: “LT BOB KOMOROFF FROM THE OFFICERS OF ATTACK SQUADRON FORTY-FOUR”. I did a little research on the internet and found the following information:

 

Lt. Cmdr. Robert A. Komoroff '47 was killed the night of May 8, 1964, when the A4C Skyhawk he was flying crashed into the sea less than 15 miles from the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. His body was recovered the following morning. A physics major at Occidental College, he was a 20-year veteran of the Navy and flew 53 combat missions in Korea.

 

At the time of his death, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt had just completed a Mediterranean Cruise (April 1964-December 1964). Between June 1966 and February 1967, The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt and CVW-1 conducted combat operations off the coast of Vietnam aboard USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During the Korean War, VA-44, nicknamed the Hornets, was a US Navy Attack Squadron. The squadron was established as an Attack Squadron and designated Fighter Squadron VF-44 on 1 September 1950, and redesignated back to VA-44 on 1 January 1956. VA-44 was equipped with F4U-4s was assigned to Air Task Group 1 (ATG-1) aboard the USS Boxer for a deployment to Korea and the Western Pacific from 30 March to 28 November 1953. On 13 June 1953 the squadron conducted its first combat operations against targets in Korea. The next month, July 1953, the Korean War officially ended. This is all I know about the man but wanted to share and item that became a little part of my life that once belonged to another. Thank you.

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Awesome Story! Funny how you can shed light on things from many years ago. Thank you for sharing!

 

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

 

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