Honoring our Veterans
John Poulakis, also known as Jake, was born in December of 1923 in Waterbury Connecticut. At a young age, his parents moved to Baldwin, NY in Nassau County. This is
where John grew up and went to school.
In December of 1942, just shy of 19 years old, John was drafted into the Army. At that time there was no “Air Force,” rather the “Air Corp” was part of the Army and that was where John eventually went.
John spent his first two weeks at Camp Upton in Yaphank. Many years later, Camp Upton became the site of Brookhaven National Laboratory. After about two weeks at Camp Upton, John and his fellow recruits boarded a train to Atlantic City. There in Atlantic City, right on the boardwalk, John received his basic training. John also found out that all those who were told to get off the train in Atlantic City were to go into the Army Air Corp.
After completing basic training, John decided to become a pilot and was sent to the Army’s flight school in Santa Anna, California. After spending some time at flight school, John realized that being a pilot was not in his future and he was reassigned to gunnery school in Arlington, Texas. John graduated from gunnery school and was sent overseas to England in 1944.
In England, John was assigned to the Eighth Air Force and was stationed at Shipdam Air Base in Norwich England. There, he was assigned to be a waist-gunner on a B-24 heavy bomber. In England, John was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant. All air crew members that were not officers, were promoted to Staff Sergeant. This was done so that in the event the plane was shot down and the crew was captured, the Army thought that these crews would be better treated by the Germans.
While assigned to the Eighth Air Force, John flew 29 combat missions, mostly over Germany. A few were flown over occupied France; one was flown over Norway and another over Italy. While on these missions, the air crews faced many dangers and the possibility of being shot down was great. One of the worst dangers was “Flak”. Flak is exploding enemy aircraft shells. If one of these shells exploded near your plane, it could cause it to crash. Another danger that John and his fellow crewmen faced was enemy fighters. These fighters shot down many B-24s and B-17s during the war.
An interesting fact is that, at 19 years old, John was the second oldest member of his 10 man flight crew. Only the pilot was a few years older - he was 24. Just imagine, being only a teenager and having to face all that danger. It made boys into men very quickly.
After World War Two ended, John was discharged and decided to go to college under the “GI Bill”. John attended Syracuse University. In 1948, he met and married his wife Marion and in 1959, John and Marion moved to Hampton Bays and opened the “Hampton Maid Inn”. Over 50 years later, the Poulakis Family still owns and runs the inn.
Read about March's honoree, Mr. Joseph Lach, Sr.
Read about February's honoree, Mr. Raymond Rand (World War II)
Read about January's honoree, Mrs. Marilouise Kelly (World War II)
Read about November's honoree, Mr. Walter Flaherty (World War II)
Read about December's honoree, Mr. James Papandrea (World War II)