[Michael B]

I just picked up a lot of items from the 1932 Olympics. A college student from Uniontown, PA attended the games. While there he collected signatures on two of his boxing programs. One of them was signed by 5 gold medalists in boxing including tough ones from South Africa and Argentina. The other program was signed by three boxing medalists and the marathon winner from Argentina, a tough signature. Two of the signatures on these programs were casualties of WWII.

Werner Spannagel - competing for Germany, he finished 5th in the flyweight category. He was eliminated in the quarter finals by eventual bronze medalist and future world champion, Lou Salica. Serving in the Germany Army, he was killed in action on the Eastern Front in 1943.

Farid Simaika - an Egyptian who had moved to the U.S. in 1926 to train. He was unable to compete for the U.S. in 1928 so he competed for Egypt. He won silver and bronze medals in diving at the 1928 Olympics. He is Egypt's first Olympic medalist. He was so well regarded in his homeland that he was invited to King Farouk's wedding even though he was Coptic Christian. He became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He enlisted in the U.S. Army. He had earned his pilots license back in Egypt and tried to enroll in pilot training, but he was too old. He instead enrolled in Officers Candidate School. As he was also an amateur photographer with his own darkroom at home he was assigned to air intelligence. He was also working on a process to distinguish camouflage from real foliage. As a bomber wing intelligence officer, he went on a B-24 reconnaissance mission on September 11, 1943. His plane was shot down near Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia. According Frank Kurtz, 1932 diving medalist, WWII bomber pilot and father of actress Swoosie, an Australian Coast Watcher had come across the bodies of 5 Americans who had been beheaded by the Japanese. He was familiar with swimmers and divers and recognized the head of Simaika.