MAD GREEK ENTERS THE USAAF

Paul A. Chapas was born in Spokane city, Washington on February 15, 1915. He was the son of Paul Chapas from Thessaloniki, Greece (15/4/1888) and Cora Virginia Bullock. Paul immigrated to the United States and settled in Washington state. Like many Greeks he engaged in the restaurant business and through hard work he managed to have his own, the well-known Richelieu Café in Seattle. When World War II erupted Paul tried to enter the United States Army Air Force (USAAF), however by January 1942 he was only a month away from being too old to qualify. For that reason, he turned for help to the reporters of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. The reporters launched a campaign to catch the attention of the military decision-makers. According to Paul:
 

"These guys started writing little blurbs in the paper. Time was growing close. I was closing 26 years pretty soon."
 
On February 15 Chapas 26th birthday came and went without hearing from the USAAF with the young Greek American being disappointed, however, the reporters stepped up their efforts, admonishing the military for passing up the opportunity to sign him. Their efforts paid off and soon after Paul was invited to the office of John Boettiger, publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. During their meeting, Boettiger told him to visit him in his house and meet his wife, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, the daughter of President Franklin Roosevelt! It was a chance that could not be lost.
 
"I told her my story. At least I was in a little better spirits. Soon after my mom got a radiogram from the War Department that said regardless of my age, I was to be inducted into the Air Force." 
 
By October 1942 Chapas earned his silver wings and his 2nd Lieutenant’s bars and soon he was appointed to the 1st Photo Group, based in Douglas, Arizona, where he began flying reconnaissance mapping flights all around the world. He usually flew an A-29 twin-engine British plane equipped with three trimetrogon cameras mounted at different angles. The cameras timed to go off in certain intervals, snapped pictures from 20.000ft.
 
“Those cameras took pictures, so they overlapped. When the film was developed it made a mosaic of pictures that became a solid map.”
 
Paul's first flights along with his crew took place over Latin America, including Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.  Later Chapas was issued a brand-new B-25 Mitchell bomber, stripped from its armament, and flew up to the North Pole for another mapping expedition. From then on, whatever aircraft he was assigned would be dubbed “Margie’s Mad Greek” with a nose art showing a Greek wearing the traditional knee-length kilt-like garment, the fustanella, painted under the cockpit. He did that to honor his Greek heritage as well as his beautiful wife Margie Joyce Chapas (Hagen). Unfortunately, the picture of the first “Margie’s Mad Greek” can’t be found so far. 
 
Later he got a brand spanking new B-17 Flying Fortress (“Margie’s Mad Greek II”), also stripped from his armament and sent to photo-mapping missions across the Atlantic, in places such as the Algiers and Cairo in North Africa. If the reconnaissance Fortress, known as F-9, needed to take cover it had the luxury of being able to maneuver quickly because it wasn’t carrying much weight. According to Paul:
 
"The objective was to take pictures, get off there, and not make contact with the enemy. We could outclimb anything or get right on the Mediterranean and shoot home 10 to 12 feet of the water."
 
Other memorable assignments included flying high-ranking officers from mapping HQ in Washington D.C. on a 90-day inspection tour over regions including Algeria and Italy, to see where the enemy installations were and to see the appropriate places from which allied troops could invade enemy territory. On the way from Washington D.C., the officers wanted to stop in Haiti to purchase rum! Another diversion was to Recife in Brazil, where a casino was there!  During his two years of service, he landed in 33 different countries and returned home with a very long snort-shorter, which became viral in the local newspapers. Chapas had bills from West African countries and Gabon as well as from the more standard ones from Central America and North Africa. Many Allied airmen in World War II made souvenirs of their travels by collecting currency from all the places they visited. A "short snorter" was a collection of bills taped together, often signed by friends. When buying drinks, an airman who could not produce his short snorter was expected to buy a round for those who had theirs. In some cases, the person with the shortest snort or the fewest signatures would buy the drinks.  Chapas flew more than 1.600 hours logging about 200 missions during this tour of duty. He proudly mentioned about his B-17:
 
"It’s my plane. It’s the best plane the Boeing people ever turned out, and we wouldn’t trade it for any other. Seattle Boeing workers can be mighty proud of it."