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The
first in a Series
Coach K aka Mr.
George Koskimaki was a High School Teacher
and Basketball Coach in the Detroit Michigan
area and a noted WWII Historian for the 101st
Airborne Division. George was the radioman
for the commander of the 101st
Maxwell Taylor going into Normandy.
In the mid
1960s George decided to write a book about
the 101st Airborne Division in
Normandy. He settled on a theme which was
based around June 6, 1944. That eventually
turned into D-Day with the Screaming Eagles
which was released in 1970.
Creating the
book was very interesting as interesting as the finished
book. Back in the 1960s there was no Google
and that meant that George had to locate
former members of the 101st. He
reached out to many places including the Don
F. Pratt Museum in Fort Campbell, Kentucky
and went to St. Louis NPRC (National
Personal Record Center) to create rosters of
soldiers. In creating his
book he also used military records including
Pay Roll Records. George had to go to St.
Louis to get those and it cost quite a bit
back in the mid-60s.
George then
used those rosters to locate the men. His
main source were phone books and written
letters to the last known location where
they lived before the war. The phone books
he gathered were voluminous. He said that
he spent hours at night just scanning
looking for numbers to call. During that
time of his life George slept about three
hours a night he said.
Brian N.
Siddall |
