User:Nerd2222
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03:17, 30 January 2007 (UTC)nerd2222Mickey Zadrozny was born in a poor Chicago suburb in September of 1912, the eldest of two children. His mother perished in a factory fire in Chicago in 1918. Unable to cope with her loss and two small children, his father committed suicide six months later. Separated by the state, Michal and his sister were raised in a string of orphanages and foster homes in the Chicago area. Zadrozny fled at 16, tried unsuccessfully to find his sister, and spent two years riding the rails through the western states. An avid pyromaniac, he burned down a string of warehouses and abandoned buildings during this period, and was finally caught setting fire to a wooden church in Idaho Falls. “I couldn’t help it,” he told the judge. “All that old wood. I just knew it would go up like a box of matches.” He served six years in an Idaho State Pen, and joined the Corps promptly upon his release in 1937. During cross-training he discovered the joy of operating a flamethrower, and switched his area of concentration. While eccentric, he flourished in the military setting, earning the respect of his officers as a bold and competent soldier. All might have been well had he not torched an empty and derelict barn outside his base. During his court martial, he told the court “I’m not crazy. I just like setting things on fire.” Sentenced to six months of observation in a military psychiatric ward, his case was soon drawn to Barringer's attention. The Colonel stopped by for a visit two weeks after Pearl Harbor.
“Mickey,” said the Colonel, “If you join my outfit you’ll get medals for burning things down. Pillboxes, bunkers, tanks, you name it.”
“I don’t care one way or the other for medals, sir, but I’ve never burned up a bunker. Sounds like fun, sir.”
When subsequent psychological tests found Zadrozny marginally more sane than the man on the street, the Colonel knew he’d found his flame thrower operator.
Age: 29 Height: 6' 1" Weight: 192 lbs.
This is my autobio during World War 2.
