Word: kirn
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Class of 1945: Robert Chapin Alsop, Loring Burgess Jr., Richard Wendell Johnson, George John Kirn, Donald Nelson Michael, Raymond Moley 2d, Reed Moyer, Richard Joseph Ward, Lucien Hynes Warner Jr., Jack Harris Zinkow...
...Squadron. Kirn's squadron was a ' quiet one. It flew with a steady hand and did not stunt. It did its job and then talked about something else. It groused a bit for the good of its health, but on the whole it was brave, cooperative, steady, unboastful. Its pet swearword, which it picked up from Al Frank, was "Oh, Krause!" Its pet salute was what Red Wages described as a Jap salute: both hands, fingers spread...
Bullet Lou Kirn (he got his nickname and his cagey heart at Annapolis, playing football) was all Navy: a bear for work, a hater but an understander of red tape, not a liberty hound, never so tired he could not jack his tired men. Bob Milner, the squadron's Executive Officer, was the opposite of relaxed Lou Kirn. In the cockpit he jumped around like a monkey, twisting knobs, pushing levers, pulling his hood open and slamming it shut again, punching out Morse-code messages to his wingmen with his fist. But he was a smooth flyer...
...catch in the open sea as a cockroach on a kitchen floor. They learned the most advantageous level to begin dives into ack-ack. They learned the best way to deal with Zeros. Some squadrons boast of the number of lives they have given for their country. But Kirn's men are proud of how much they did with so little loss. The lessons learned by Kirn's men will be of service to the country because they came back alive...
This conservatism was not a lack of daring. It was due to smart soldiering and to Lou Kirn's emphasis on drill, drill, drill. Bullet Lou Kirn will be proudest of his men if they go through the war killing Japs with this saying in the back of their heads: "I don't want to be the best pilot, I just want to be the oldest...