Research

I received a message from Dr. Kidd in England who is doing research for the movie. I figured someone should look through the records from the British about the 64th. My big question for him along with a bunch of general search for any information is who gave the order to send the 64th, and by extension the 57th Fighter Group to Egypt. And not only who but why.

According to the book Army at Dawn, Roosevelt made the decision to launch Operation Torch on July 3, 1942. Operation Torch initiated the invasion of Africa via Algeria and Morocco on the West Coast of Africa. Only two weeks later, on July 15th, 1942, the enlisted men and some officers were already at sea on the S.S Pasteur. But the combat (air) echelon departed on the Ranger with their planes on July 1, 1942. It probably doesn’t matter but it does show the US was entering the war in Europe.

Books I’m Reading

As I pondered the above question, I went down a rabbit hole for a bit, which is a constant occurrence these days. I looked up the days my Grandfather was at sea to find the name of his ship. I was on the 57th Fighter Group website to see the date the Combat Echelon left and came upon the name of General Lewis H. Brereton. Brereton wrote a diary about WW2 and his experiences. Brereton helped out with Middle East Air Force which oversaw the 57th Fighter Group’s operations. The rabbit went deep.

But the book that is really helping at the moment is 8th Army about Britain’s 8th Army. This book isn’t as detailed about the battle of El Alamein as Alamein, which is a big help. The book also goes back a little deeper into the history of how 8th Army came about. More battles. More depictions of the higher ups. The book covers the whole journey of the 8th Army until the end of the war. I’m only up to the Alamein portion of the 8th Army history. I’m unsure if I will put the book aside after the battle of Alamein or continue reading until I finish. I’m currently loading up on Alamein facts for the trip to Egypt and want to make sure all those are in my head before I go. I can fill up on Sicily and Italy later.

Egypt Trip

After much Sturm and Drang, I finally paid my Egyptian tour guide some money. The disagreement arose when he told me I wasn’t going to be staying at the Sofitel and instead would be staying at the Sheraton.  A room is a room, I thought. As my mother once put it, all rooms look the same once you close your eyes. Foolishly, though, I thought I would get a discount on the room rate I was paying for extra days in the hotel. The Sofitel worked out to be $1000 a night where as the Sheraton was $400 a night. If I had to pay the full rate for the Sofitel, I would have found other accommodations.

The amount I’m paying is closer to the Sheraton price, maybe a tad more. Still more than I want to pay for a room. My thinking was if the tour operators could get a more than %50 discount on the Sofitel, they should be able to do the same at the Sheraton. Once again, there I go thinking. The tour operator said the rate was the rate regardless of the hotel. That didn’t seem quite fair. In the Sofitel instance, I was getting a great deal. In the other,  I was being overcharged. I was giving in to my inner-Karen. What made it worse was I had looked up the Sofitel on line and really liked it’s location right on the Nile with rooms that faced the pyramids. So much disappointment. It’s tough to start the trip and already be bitter.

While all this was going on, I was still trying to pay for my trip. If I did a direct bank to bank transfer, no charge. If I use a credit card, the tour operator would make me pay the credit card fees of 3%. This seems to be the new way of doing business. When Cindi and I did our tour through Jerusalem, we ran into the 3% add on a lot. I opted to make a direct wire transfer. They gave me the bill in Pounds, because most of the people on this tour are from England. I did the math and converted my fee into pounds. I typed in all the information for the transfer and was immediately rejected. I tried to do the transfer in pounds because the bank charges a fee if you do the transfer in dollars. No fees for any other currency.

I opted to pay the $45 fee and use dollars. No luck. I email the tour and tell them of the problems. They give me a different account to try to transfer to because the account I tried to transfer to only accepted pounds. Armed with all the new account information, I tried again. Same results. My bank only offered frustration.

In the end, because I was heartily sick of fighting with the bank every morning, I paid via credit card and gave them and extra $100 for the fees. I will be giving another $100 when I pay the final fees in two weeks.

T-Shirts

In my mind, I equate movie making with having the right T-shirt. When I first started on my journey to make Iron Crotch twenty years ago, the first thing I did was have t-shirts made. Counting on a huge success, I made a lot of shirts. Most of them still gather dust in the back of my closet. But I given away a few. But did I learn my lesson about the connection between shirts and movies? Of course not. Although I did buy far few shirts this go around. I did use Custom Ink again to make the shirts. They were a big help and very nice maybe too nice.

A few days after I place my order, I received an email from Custom Ink saying they noticed my military shirt and just wanted to thank me for my service. Um, what? I wrote back and explained I wasn’t in the military, that I was making a documentary about my grandfather’s time in the military. They responded with the following email.

“Hi Greg,

I hope you’re having a wonderful day, and thank you so much for getting back to us regarding your 25-piece order for the Black Scorpions 64th Fighter Squadron design.

First and foremost, we truly appreciate you sharing the story behind this order. Knowing that the design represents your grandfather’s unit during his service in World War II, and that you’re using these shirts to help promote a documentary about his service and the story told in his book, makes this order especially meaningful to us.

It has been a real privilege to be part of something so personal and important to you and your family. We sincerely hope the shirts will help support your documentary and bring more attention to your grandfather’s story. We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with you and be a small part of this meaningful project, and we’re wishing you all the best with the documentary and its promotion.

I also have a great update for you! Since your proof was approved on August 31, your order has now shipped out. You’ll receive the tracking information so you can follow the shipment and stay updated on its progress.

Your current expected delivery date is September 8.”

That seems like pretty good customer service.