George Luz

George Luz was a Private First Class with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division. during the Second World War. He's probably best remembered from the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers in which he's portrayed by actor Rick Gomez. George Luz was born on June 17, 1921 in Rhode Island. He joined the Paratroopers in 1941. As it was showed in BOB, Luz had a knack for causing trouble with his large sense of humor. He was quite good in imitating voices of almost everyone he knew. He was making fun just about anyone. During a training exercise in England, Luz did an impression of Major Oliver Horton, to the Commander of Easy, Herbert Sobel, fooling him into cutting an English farmer's fence and letting loose a herd of cows. It later turned out, that Major Horton was in London at the time. Sobel never figured out who actally fooled him. On June 6, 1944, George Luz entered one of hundreds airplanes, fully packed and ready to jump into Normandy. He was on Lt. Harry Welsh's plane. He was carrying a radio and batteries and had been unable to get into the plane until a bunch of Air Corpse guys pushed him in. Ince inside he turned to Welsh to say that he's fifth man in the stick, and he'll never make it to the door. Welsh had told him to change place with Pvt. Cobb. When the german artillery flak started Cobb called out "I'm hit". He couldn't jump. Luz later remembered "We wanted to get out of there so damn bad." Luz kicked his leg bag containing the radio and other equipment out of the door and leaped into the night. Thus did 13,400 other brave American Soldiers. When Luz landed, he was alone and was unable to locate any of his comrades. He was ducking behind a hedgerow for cover, looking up and seeing fellow paratroopers shot by tracer rounds. He later managed to regroup with his company the next day. George Luz and Easy Company, lead by Lt. Winters and later by Norman Dike and Cpt. Ronald Speirs were taking of Carentan. Not even a month later Luz and his fellow friends jumped into Holland during Operation Market Garden. Near Xmas 1944, Luz and the rest of Easy Company participated in the Battle of the Bulge, where Luz lost several friends to German artillery, such as Alex Penkala and Warren Muck. Luz as well as his friend Carwood Lipton got lots of credits with keeping Easy Companys morale up with their humor in dire times. Luz' most popular voice he imitated during the tough time in Foy was the one of Norman Dike, it brought a lot of laughs to his fellow commerades. Luz was at the scene when Easy took Hitlers "Adlerhorst". Luz survived the war, and returned home and settled in West Warwick, Rhode Island with his wife Del. He worked as a maintenance consultant and was killed in an industrial accident on October 15, 1998 while working on a commercial clothes dryer at a state facility. In Luz's remembrance at the funeral home, there was a line down the street of people waiting to pay their respects. Luz was buried with his earned medals on his chest (Bronze Star, Purple Heart, World War 2 Victory Medal, Presidental Unit Citation) of which his family were not aware. Luz' burial at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island, was overseen by more than 1600 people. It was one of the biggest funeralever held in the state of Rhode Island.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 23 2018, 22:49:32 UTC