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Cpt. Casimir J. Trzyna
Information courtesy of 450th Bomb Group (H) The "Cottontails" of WWII and Turner Publishing Company
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Casimir and his wife, Rose |
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Born 29 January 1918 on the south side of Chicago, IL to Rose (Wojturska) and Joseph Trzyna (deceased). One sister, Genevieve (Drabik).
Casimir married his sweetheart, Rose (Mozdzen) in May, 1942 (deceased in 1994) and was happily married for 52 years.
He is survived by his children Linda, Wayne (Valerie Leuranguer), and Alan Trzyna, grandsons: Aron and Leo Trzyna.
Casimir enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in 1936 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1942
WW II action saw him stationed in Manduria, Italy with the 450th Bomb Group ("Cottontails"), after training at Chanute Field in Illinois as an aircraft maintenance engineering officer.and subsequent work with B-24 training units at other locations.
Following WW II, he was assigned to Chengtu, China as a military advisor to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force to establish an aircraft maintenance school. This was interrupted by Communist takeover in late 1948.
In 1951 he received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He also graduated from the Armed Forces Special Weapons and Staff and Command Courses.
He served the rest of his career in nuclear weapons research, development, testing, and maintenance, first at Kirtland and Sandia AF bases and subsequently at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver-where he assisted in the establishment of a nuclear weapons training school and was chief of that training (1955-58).
After a year in France as Commander of the 6th TDS, he was assigned in 1959 as director of munitions at USAFE HQ in Wiesbaden, Germany and was involved in a negotiating team with NATO to bring nuclear capability to those nations.
Assigned to Sandia in 1961, he served as chairman of the Joint Atomic Weapons Publication Board under the Defense Atomic Support Agency. From 1962 until his retirement in 1966, he continued to work in Colorado Springs (Chidlaw Bldg, Ent AFB) in aerospace munitions.
He received the Legion of Merit.
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Link To Obituary Notice
Information courtesy of Linda Trzyna, daughter of Casimir Trzyna
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