From The Green Box Film Project

We Honor our

Veterans

Written by Jim Kurtz

For as long as I can remember, the celebration of Veterans Day has held a very special place in my heart. My father, 2^nd Lt. Robert Kurtz, was a veteran of WWII. As a co-pilot on a B-24 bomber, flying missions into Germany, he somehow miraculously survived the war, only to return home both physically and mentally traumatized. At age 33, he suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving a wife and four sons, of whom I am the youngest.

I have no memories of my father, but each year Veterans Day gave me the opportunity to honor him, not only as a soldier, but as a dad. I remember standing mesmerized on the curbsides of White Plains, New York, as our local parade of veterans marched down the streets in their service uniforms, medals and ribbons shining magnificently in the bright autumn sun. As I grew older, the awe and excitement of the parade that had produced smiles on the face of a young boy, evolved into a teenager’s tears, as I began to understand what my father and these veterans had sacrificed so that we would be able to live in a land of freedom and democracy.

Last week, Dream Catchers Films Entertainment interviewed Congressman Seth Moulton, a self-professed victim of post-traumatic stress from his numerous deployments overseas. That session was the last in a series of interviews that our producers have conducted. It is the final piece that will enable us to finish the rough cut of our documentary; The Green Box: At the Heart of a Purple Heart.

As I re-watched previous film interviews with Gen. Charles McGee and Lt. Colonel Alexander Jefferson, two famed Tuskegee Airmen, and Lt. Bob Doolan, a B-24 navigator who, along with Jefferson was a POW in Stalag Luft 3, (the same camp as my father), I did so with a heavy heart. All three of these brave men passed away in 2022; McGee at 101 years of age, Jefferson at 100, and Doolan at 105! The overseas service of these WWII heroes was, in one way or another, connected to my father. Gen. McGee flew fighter support for my dad on at least four bombing missions. Both Jefferson and Doolan endured the hardships of POW internment and the Forced  March in the winter of 1945. My father might very well have known them.

I spoke with Gen. McGee on the phone late last year and Bob Doolan as recently as this past summer. I considered them great friends; they were humbled by my interest in their stories. And now they are gone, as is Jefferson; the last living links to my dad’s story.

On Veterans Day this year, after the parade has passed, the speeches have been made, and the wreaths laid, I will say a special prayer for these three incredibly brave men. May they rest in peace and may we never forget what they did to keep us in a safer world.

God bless them.