Benoit Antoniou heritage is from Greece. His grandparents left from Greece and search for a better luck in France the past century. He entered the Armée de l'air in 1993 and graduate as a fighter pilot in 1997. . He joined the Escadron 1/5 "Vendée" in 1998 and served for 8 years from the cockpit of Mirage 2000s. As a pilot of French Air Defense Quick Reaction Forces, he participated in the Alysse Operation (Better known with the American name as Operation Southern Watch) in Saudi Arabia twice. He also took part in lots of exercises in various countries (especially in Greece in 2005). From 2005-2008 he was attached to a unit near Paris in which he was responsible for flight crew equipment programs (replacement of MK4 seats with MK10L on the Alphajet fleet and commissioning of new flight helmets) while he was in direct communications with the military industry during various programs development ensuring that these were aligned with the financial resources and the strategy of the armed forces. For the next four years he was posted to Mont de Marsan and acted as a Director of the Combat Training Center (distributed simulation) and he was engaged in training of Armée de l’air and foreign air forces personnel. As part of this command, with a team of 5 instructors he trained ....

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https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/benoit-antoniou/

Paul Skarlatos, Navy Captain, United States Naval Academy, Class of 1954,  was born in Rochester, NY, USA, in 1930 to Nicholas Skarlatos and Ioanna (maiden name -  Triandafilakos) Skarlatos. His father was born in the village of Grammousa, Greece and his mother was born in Filisi, Greece, both from Laconia district. Nicholas was a business partner of Ioanna’s first husband, George Andrew Lembaris. They all emigrated to the United States between 1917 and 1924,  became naturalized American citizens, and Nicholas and George established a restaurant in Rochester, NY (the South Ave. Candy Kitchen – known for its homemade chocolates and ice cream).  Ionanna (known as Joan) married George in 1925, and they had two sons together, Andrew and George. When..

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https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/paul-scarlatos/

"If you can master the F-4, you can master any aircraft in the world". These were some wise and later to comprehend words, an instructor once told young Lieutenant Ioannis (Yannis) Tsolekas during his pilot training at the F-4 training squadron, back in the mid ‘90s. Yannis realised and still realises how true those words are throughout his flight test career until this very day that this article is written. The F-4 is maybe one of the most “strange” fighter jet aircraft designs that were ever built, but so widely and so successfully used for many years by many Air Forces around the world. This design failed most of the military standards against which it was called to comply with, based on the certification process the USAF uses for every new military aircraft design. The unique flying characteristics of this design, required significant pilot compensation and at the same time excellent piloting skills and complete knowledge of aerodynamics. This was because the specific airplane required the pilot to be way ahead of it, and would forgive very few mistakes. The pilots who would quickly realise that, and those who had the skills to understand its uniqueness, were the ones who were able to fly the airplane to its full effectiveness.

For more click the following link:

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/test-pilots-flight-test-engineers/ioannis-tsolekas/

After 20+ years of research, the story of Sabe Legatos with heritage from the beautiful Greek island of Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea will be told. Hopefully, the killed in action Greek American US Navy Hellcat Pilot will return to his home in Sacramento CA, if his niece's DNA will match with those from unaccounted pilots found in Japan. However, whatever the results might be, the combined efforts of the Greeks in Foreign Cockpits team, the Japanese researcher Kenji Sudo, the Sacramento Greek American community leading in this matter by Nick Alexander and the US Government ( Congressional staff member Greg Holt) already produced results as the final moments of Legatos and Japanese Army Air Force pilot, Matsunaga revealed to us. Kenji presented a self-published work about these two heroes which he kindly sent copies for us in Greece. A month ago in Sacramento, a memorial ceremony took place for Sabe with the presence of all those mentioned above, albeit without us. For that reason, we wrote a small letter addressed to the Greek American community, which was given to all the participants.

A small tribute and preview of things to come in our Volume C of GREEKS IN FOREIGN COCKPITS regarding Sabe Legatos can be accessed in the following link.

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/sabe-legatos/

Also, you can read Kenji Sudo and Nick Alexander's speech (and the video from Kenji speech) as well as our letter which addressed to the Greek American community of Sacramento in the link below:

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/interviews-presentations-magazine-articles/sacramento-2019/

Colonel George Jatras was born in Clairton, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1931.  His parents were both from Lakonia, with his father Agisilaos Iatreidis from (to the best of Jatras’s knowledge) from Melitini (also called Zelina) and his mother Coula (Poulikakou) originally from Mani but having grown up in Stefania. Jatras’s wife of 60 years, Stella (Stavroula), who died in 2013, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, to parents from the same region: Louis (Leonidas) Katsetos from Krokee’ (also called Levetsova) and Marini (Sakellariou) from Tarapsa (also called Vasilakion). After graduating from Anderson High School, Indiana in June 1948, Jatras attended Ball State Teacher’s College, Muncie, Indiana; the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland; and graduated from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in May 1954 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.  He also holds ...

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https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/george-jatras/

Peter Tsouprake was born on February 4, 1928, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the son of a Greek parentage couple, Charles and Irene Leoutsakos-Tsouprake. Charles (Kyriakos) and Irene (Eirene) were both from Mani Peloponnese and most probably the family name was actually Tsuprakos. The couple emigrated from Greece separately at the turn of the century and married in New Bedford, MA where they had 7 children, two daughters, and five sons. Peter was the last born and the youngest child. Peter was active in the ROTC at New Bedford High School and was voted Most Military in his high school class. Eager to join all six of his elder brothers and sisters in serving his nation, at age 17 he forged his father’s signature on his U.S. Army enlistment form, and joined the U.S. Army in December 27, 1945. He traveled to North Dakota, where he served as a Weather Forecaster before leaving active duty on November 15, 1948. Peter then attended Brown University, and upon...

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https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/nfos-wsos-mission-co/peter-tsouprake/

For the second time on our website, we are proud to present you with a combined tribute for a father and a son. Natural born eagles someone could say. Danny and George Michaels (Michalopoulos) both wore proudly the Wing of Gold as many Greek Americans before them, flying in combat in WW2, a story that will soon be revealed in our upcoming volume C, of GREEKS IN FOREIGN COCKPITS series of books. 

 

The father Danny Michaels was one of the first USN pilots who flew the Phabulous Phantom in combat and had the distinction to fly two combat tours in Yankee Station, with VF-102 & VF-103. For his gallantry in combat, he was awarded the DFC. But even before joining the combat over Vietnam he was the first USN pilot in exchange duty with the USAF, helping the Air Force pilots how to fly McDonnell’s beast in lent USN F-4Bs because the modified F-4Cs hadn’t delivered yet.

 

For more details follow this link: https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/danny-michaels/

 

The son George Michaels was inevitable to join the Navy. Wanting to fly like his father he pursued his cause to be a pilot but unfortunately, he was informed that his eyesight wasn’t “pilot worthy”. Nevertheless, he stayed on course and managed to get his Gold Wings as a Naval Flight Officer, having the privilege to fly as Radar Intercept Officer the mighty F-14 Tomcat, the pride of USN fighters. His callsign...WHAM..what else, as his name almost matches the great Greek Cypriot singer, George Michael, remembered for his success with the WHAM! He served with distinction, flying in combat over Afghanistan following his father's tradition.   

 

For more details follow this link: https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/nfos-wsos-mission-co/george-michael/