William “Bill” Vasilios Kehayias was born in New York City, July 10, 1925. His father, Zafirios Anthony Kehayias was a Greek immigrant from Chorlou, a small town in Eastern Thrace, which at the turn of the 20th Century was part of the Ottoman Empire. Zafirios was born May 21, 1893, was a cobbler and married to Vasiliki who was from the nearby town of Rodosto, also in Eastern Thrace. They immigrated to the US on the SS Argentina, arriving September 1, 1913, and settled in New York City. Zafirios eventually owned and operated a shoe repair and hat cleaners at 3675 Broadway in upper Manhattan. According to his Declaration of Intention to naturalize, submitted on June 9, 1924, he and Vasiliki were living at 228 West 149th Street. Their son Vasilios (William) was born a year later. Zafirios struggled to keep his shoe store during the Great Depression and to add to his troubles, his wife Vasiliki passed away and he was raising his son Bill by himself. The Kehayias family joined the Greek Orthodox Church community of St. Spyridon in Washington Heights, located on Wadsworth Avenue, not that close to where they lived but the most vibrant Greek community in NYC, if not among the Greek communities in the entire United States. Bill joined the St. Spyridon youth group called the EON (Elliniki Orthodox Neolea - Greek Orthodox Youth), where Bill played basketball and captained the EON baseball and football teams. Vasili “Bill” was a bright student and when he completed junior high school, applied and was accepted into one of the top public high schools in NYC, Stuyvesant High School. According to his 1943 high school yearbook, he must have excelled in there, earning a scholarship pin, making the honor roll, and was his class Vice President. A typical wartime yearbook, Bill listed that his post-high school plan was to join in the US Army Air Corps. While still a high school senior, he enlisted in the US Army Air Force on April 9, 1943, in the USAAF’s Air Cadet Program for high school students. As a 17-year-old, he needed his father’s signature on his enlistment papers and his father was reluctant to sign, giving his permission for his only son to join the army. After a few minutes, Bill got impatient and said to his Greek immigrant father: "Do you love this country? Then sign on the line!". On January 11, 1944, William “Bill” Kehayias was sworn in and inducted (went on active duty) in the USAAF. He was sent to Ft. Dix, NJ for basic training. After completing a series of different tests, including intelligence and mechanical aptitude, he was assigned to Air Mechanics School at Keesler Field, Biloxi, Mississippi. After graduating from the AM School, he was sent to Harlingen Field, Texas for Gunnery School. Bill was then sent to Tonopah, Nevada for Air Crew Training June-July 1944. He was assigned to a crew, their number was 313. Their first of many training flights took place June 18, 1944. The pilot in his crew was R.L. 'Bob' Franklin The flight engineer was named Delbert “Bud” Hostletter. An unusual but positive coincidence was that another Greek-American was part of Bill’s crew, Constantine “Gus” Skidas (for whom we are going to make a separate tribute), radioman and gunner from Pennsylvania. On September 24, 1944, the Franklin crew flew from Hamilton Field, California to Fairfield Suison Field, California then to John Rogers Air Base, Oahu, Hawaii. They arrived at John Rogers Airfield, Oahu, Hawaii on September 29, 1944. On Oct. 1, 1944, they flew from John Rogers Field, Hawaii to Canton Island. From Canton Island, the next stop was the Fiji Islands then Townsville, Australia. From Townsville, they were flown in a C-47 to Nadzab, New Guinea.