“You just keep on flyin’ till they shoot you down”

Achilles Kozakis is one of the most memorable figures in Bombing Hitler's Hometown, and I was fortunate to call him my friend. Even well into his nineties, he displayed incredible energy and passion, as well as a flawless memory. On the sixth anniversary of his death, I hope you enjoy this passage that didn't make it into the book. Also, at bottom, find the song that drove Achilles to write, "Together, we cry today, and tomorrow we will laugh."

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Achilles Themisstokles Kozakis abandoned his middle name when he joined the Army Air Forces (AAF) in 1944, figuring no one would be able to pronounce it. Themisstokles was his father’s given name at birth, and when the elder Kozakis had immigrated from Greece in 1895, he’d faced the same problem. “From now on, you’re Thomas,” the US immigration officer had declared upon making Kozakis a naturalized citizen, and it became so, but when Thomas Kozakis married Amersa Kotsanatos and had children, all four sons took the original Themisstokles as their middle name.

Achilles Kozakis

Even with his name shortened, Achilles inevitably encountered personnel in the Army who couldn’t pronounce it. During gunnery school, the sergeant assigning daily duty one day paused when he came to Kozakis’ name on his clip board, and, rather than butchering it out loud in front of the trainees, skipped Kozakis altogether. Kozakis didn’t say anything, and when the men were dismissed to go off to accomplish their tasks, he went to the library. This routine continued for a few days until Achilles’ conscience got to him, so he approached the sergeant the next day and volunteered to lead a detail. The sergeant assigned him a couple of guys, and they cleaned the latrines in the morning and afternoon.

Before year’s end, Kozakis found himself stationed at the 451st Bomb Group’s base near Castelluccia, Italy, and he was proud that a little bit of home had followed him. In a testament to how widely the war effort reached into American society, Kozakis was one of four natives of Lynn, Massachusetts, stationed at the airfield. Al Baril was a ground crewman, Ernie Thieberg was a rookie aerial gunner in Kozakis’ squadron, and Charlie Chronopoulos was a gunnery instructor at the 451st's headquarters. All had gone to high school together and knew each other well.

“We had the League of Nations,” Kozakis recollected. 

My next-door neighbor was Albanian. Down the street were the Bulgarians, the Armenians. Across the street was the Donahues, Irish. And next to them was another Greek, and next to them was an Italian. And up the street four houses was a synagogue. So we had it all. It was like one big family . . . It was a perfect place for a kid to grow up.

As the Lynn natives were walking to group headquarters to pose for a photograph for their hometown newspaper, Thieberg approached his buddy and asked, “Hey, Kozakis, how the hell did you get so many missions?”

The nose gunner, who at that point had racked up about a dozen missions, turned to Thieberg, patted him on the shoulder, and replied, “Ernie, you just keep on flyin’ till they shoot you down.”  The men laughed, but Kozakis’ advice proved prophetic for Thieberg.  He was shot down on his third mission and spent the rest of the war in German captivity.

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On page 223 of Bombing Hitler's Hometown, we find Achilles recovering from surgery in the England General Hospital on the Atlantic City boardwalk, surrounded by other recuperating veterans, when Vaughn Monroe' Dream was played. It caused a melancholy mood to settle over the room. Here is the song.

Sources:

- Achilles Kozakis interview with Chuck Hodge:

Part 1, 10 November 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nIw0yM3Bjs.

Part 6, 23 November 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEIavykAbHo. - Achilles Kozakis interview with Mike Croissant, 12 February 2017.