Vet wouldn’t hesitate to serve his country again. by Diane Betzler staff writer Bert Dorosy is one of only hundreds of American World War II veterans left from what renowned journalist Tom Brokaw coined as “The greatest generation.” Dorosy, now 88, spent what he calls his “prime years” serving in major battles throughout Europe. “I was drafted [into the United States Army] right out of high school,” Dorosy recalls and
describes the next three years of his life serving his country building bridges while under constant enemy fire during three of Europe’s biggest battles. Dorosy was assigned to the 278th Combat Engineers, Company “B” and said they became known as the ‘best bridge builders in the entire Army.’ “We received a presidential citation for our efforts in Europe,” he proudly states. Dorosy said his outfit built the bridges so that American and Allied forces could get equip-
ment and people to where they needed to be, and said he never expected to come though the war alive, “They [officials] said 90 percent of us would die,” Dorosy recalls. While building bridges Dorosy said they were under constant fire, “We were bombed and machine-gunned — the Germans were so determined to shove us off the continent, they shot us down even under a white flag,” “It’s hard to explain my feelings. I felt like I didn’t have a chance, like I was out there on my own. You had to grow up quick,” he said. He says his outfit fought as infantry in battles when needed and says he spent 18 months fighting continuous battles most of which, he says, was face-to-face combat. Before it was over Dorosy was involved in three major battles, the most famous being the Battle of the Bulge. “We lost more men in one-and-a-half months during that battle than was lost in the whole war, it was so ferocious,” he said. “I have three battle stars,” he proudly shares. “We took over for the D-Day group. We were the largest force sent to replace all the men and equipment that was lost on D-Day.” Dorosy said 120 American and Allied ships were sent to northern France, and he was one of the many soldiers being transported on those ships. “I was on a British cattle boat, it still had the meat hooks, instead of shipping cattle, they were shipping Americans,” he remembers. Dorosy recalls how rough it was crossing the English Channel on such a small vessel and said he was sick most of the time. “The boat was meant to take cattle hides, but it was taking American hides at the time,” he chuckles, adding that the military used every ship possible to get reinforcement troops to the
beaches at Normandy, France. The landing at Normandy was rough, “We had artillery firing over us from our side and artillery firing at us from the German side, all at the same time! It’s a miracle that I’m here today,” he believes. He recalled another intense battle when the enemy was heading to a bridge to take it over. Dorosy said he was ordered to blow the bridge if the Germans got there. “They were within a 1,000 yards of me — ready to cut my throat,” he said. Armed with only an M-1 rifle, Dorosy said he was ready to blow the bridge, “But our paratroopers got there and pushed the enemy
See VETERAN, Page 11
Supersonic laminar flow tests continue on NASA’s F-15B
NASA photograph by Tom Tschida
NASA Dryden’s F-15B Research Test bed roars aloft from the Edwards AFB main runway for an SBLT-II mission.
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s F-15B Research Testbed aircraft has been busy this spring, flying an experimental test fixture in partnership with Aerion Corporation of Reno, Nev. Called the Supersonic Boundary Layer Transition, Phase II, or SBLTII, the experiment consists of flying a small test airfoil, or wing section, attached underneath the F-15B. This allows NASA and Aerion engineers to continue investigating the extent and robustness of natural laminar flow over the test section at supersonic speeds. Conducting the experiment in actual supersonic flight conditions with the F-15B enables engineers to capture data in a real-world flight environment, allowing for more precise refining of supersonic natural laminar flow airfoil design. “The objective of the flight series is to investigate the extent and robustness
June 7, 2013 • Volume 28, Issue 10
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of smooth, or laminar, airflow over the specially-designed test airfoil,” said Brett Pauer, NASA Dryden’s deputy High Speed Project manager. “Then, researchers will work to better understand when imperfections in the airfoil’s surface cause the air to transition from laminar to rough, turbulent flow. The greater the extent of laminar airflow over a wing, the less aerodynamic drag there is, which reduces fuel consumption,” Pauer said. It is believed that significant laminar flow has never been achieved on any production supersonic aircraft before, so this research and the data being collected from the SBLT-II test fixture may help provide some of the data that might enable the design of supersonic aircraft in the future that have wings that produce laminar flow at supersonic
See F-15, Page 3
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