
Thursday, April 16
th, was a day that everyone in the club has been looking forward to since January. For a long time none of us knew which day he would come, but we all wanted my grandpa, Harold
Kurtz, to come talk to the club. Yesterday was the day we had been waiting for.

Harold and Polly, my grandma, live in Portland, Oregon and he made the 3 hour drive over the mountains to Bend and arrived just a little before the club started. After asking what I wanted to kids to learn about, he settled into his chair and started explaining his personal history of World War II.
He joined the US Army when he was 18, following two of his brothers into the Air Force. Another brother was in the 5
th Armored division and the last was in the Navy. Amazingly, all five brothers survived the war. My grandpa went through flight school and graduated at the top of his class. Because of his skill, he was asked to become an instructor; not liking the idea, Harold failed the instructors test on purpose and as punishment was put in charge of the physical training of recruits.

When he finally got to Europe, Harold was trained to fly gliders and assigned to help fly troops over the Rhine River as part of Operation Varsity. On the morning of March 23rd, his glider made a successful landing under heavy enemy fire and that night he helped hold their perimeter against the only German counter-attack in his sector. After British armor broke through to their position, Harold and the other glider pilots were ordered back across the Rhine to prepare for another landing. The second invasion ended up not being
necessary because Paton and his tanks captured a bridge intact.

My students were riveted by his stories and experiences. It might have helped that Harold is an
excellent story teller! After questions had been answered, the students gathered around to look at pictures of the gliders, Harold's dog-tags, and his Glider Wings. In all, I believe grandpa's visit will be something the students will remember for a very long time.