George Luz

Technician Fourth Grade **George Luz, Sr.** was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company. He is famous for his talent mimicking others. Luz is credited with keeping Easy Company morale up with his humor in dire times.

## Biography

### Early Years

Luz was born on Long Island, New York to Portuguese descended parents, and grew up in West Warwick, Rhode Island. He had nine siblings while growing up. He dropped out during his junior year of high school and enlisted on 25 August 1942 at Providence, Rhode Island.

### World War II

He joined the Paratroopers in 1942. As it was shown in the miniseries, 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, Perconte and the other members of Easy Company requested Luz impersonate 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 actually fooled him.

On June 6, 1944, George Luz entered one of hundreds of 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 Corps guys pushed him in. Once 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 along with 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, led 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 Christmas 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 comrades. Luz was at the scene when Easy took Hitlers "Eagle's Nest".

### Later Years

Right after returning home, Luz settled in West Warwick, Rhode Island and married Delvina. He had worked as a maintenance consultant, and he was killed in an industrial accident.

In Luz's remembrance at the funeral home, there was a line down the street of 1,600 people waiting to pay their respects. Luz was buried with his medals on his chest, of which his family had no prior knowledge. Luz is buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island.

## Trivia

* In Stephen E. Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers, it was wrongly stated that after the war, Luz became a handyman.
* According to the miniseries, The Breaking Point, Lipton and Luz were both in the foxhole when the German artillery hit right in front of them. Luckily, it didn't explode.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=luz&GSfn=george&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=24650465&