Foil: 6 Panel: Distinguished Flying Cross Society Column: 2 Line: 64

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

I enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a private in 1938 and retired 22 years later as a captain. I flew in B-24s during WWII in the Aleutian Islands and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on two occasions while performing as a gunner / photographer. All my missions were against the Japanese on Kiska, Attu and the Kurial Islands on the northern tip of Japan.
After returning from my tour in the Aleutians, I was again shipped overseas, this time to England with a P-38 Photo Recon Squadron. From England the squadron was shipped to France, then Holland and Belgium, and we wound up in Wiesbaden, Germany when the war in Europe ended. Having lots of pints, I was not shipped back to the states until Japan surrendered.
After WWII, I returned to active duty and received a direct commission during the Korean conflict. After 22 years of active Air Force photographic service, the last ten of which were spent as a military Producer / Director, station in Hollywood, I retired and was offered a civilian Producer / Director position with the Air Force. I was involved in the production of training and report films, covering everything from atomic tests, action in Vietnam, and the early missile program at Cape Canaveral. When the motion picture program was transferred to Nortin AFB, I became the Executive Producer of all films produced for Air Force use.
One of the films I produced and directed, “The Year of 53 Weeks”, was nominated to represent the Air Force at the Academy Awards. In addition I received the “Chris” award from the Film Council of Greater Columbus, several “Cindy” awards from the American Film Producers Association that included the origination and production of the first series of the “Air Force Now”, a monthly filmed Air Force activities report, as well as awards from the San Francisco Film Festival, the American Film Festival, the National Committee of Films for Safety and the International D’Arte Cinematographics Festival. A film entitled “Cross Over” documenting a South American Tour of the Air Force thunderbirds was also considered form Air Force representation at the Academy Awards.
I retired in 1979 and built a home in Capistrano Beach, California where I lived with my wife of 59 years, Catherine Ann Ciurczak.
In 1994 I got involved with and became the Founder of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society which now has over 3,500 members. To be eligible for membership you must be a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
My daughter Alexis, a Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UCLA is a librarian and associate professor at Palomar College in San Marcos, California and appears in Who’s Who in America.