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Photo caption: "It’s Like This Boss" – Lieut. John Pojunos, who piloted a naval patrol bomber in the south Pacific area for almost a year, is shown talking over the war with his former “boss”, H. J. Skillingstad, a veteran of the first world war.)
Grins After Close Escapes
Lieut. Pojunos Has Been Jap Target, Stranded At Sea
Naval Lieut. John Pojunos has hunted Japs, been shelled by them, taken part in four engagements and been stranded in a plane at sea. When pressed for details, however, he grins boyishly and attempts to change the subject.
Three officials of the Sioux City Gas and Electric company were among those who discovered this when they sought to learn what their former employee had been doing since he entered the navy February 7, 1941.
Lieut. Pojunos returned to the United States recently and is spending a short leave with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Pojunos, who live near Jefferson, South Dakota, before taking an assignment in this country.
The lieutenant is more willing to talk of fellow pilots than of himself. One is Jim Alexander, a classmate at Morningside College, a classmate throughout an aviation training course and a member of Lieut. Pojunos’ squadron.
Fighting “Irish”
“ Jim is a fighting Irishman,” laughed his classmate. “That fellow didn’t even want to wait for his return to go after the Japs. He and his crew got stranded on the Pacific once. Jim kept cheerful. Kept telling his men everything would be all right because he was born with the luck of the Irish.”
When pressed for details of his own reactions while floating on the rough Pacific in a naval plane, Lieut. Pojunos remarked casually: “Oh we got along all right. Wasn’t much to worry about. We were only there 20 hours and we were in radio contact with our ships. Finally one of them came along. We refueled and went about our business.”
Only piecemeal did the fact come out that the Pacific was very rough at the time and that several rivets had been knocked out of the plane’s fuselage in landing.
“We just stuck some pencils in the holes and did some bailing, but we all did get kind of seasick,” said the pilot.
During the battle for Guadalcanal, Lieut. Pojunos “lugged” torpedoes to the troops. One night after landing at Henderson field he spent six or seven hours in a foxhole while the Jap navy “plastered us.” His plane was damaged but he and his crew flew it to a safer place the next day.
While the battle of Midway Island was going on, the lieutenant was on patrol but explained that he “was in a sector where I did not even see a Jap.”
Wednesday evening Lieut. Pojunos married Miss Bette Keil, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Keil, 307 George Street. Until their son enlisted, Mr. and Mrs. Pojunos lived at 2111 George Street.
Source: The Sioux City Journal-Tribune, March 18, 1943 (photo included)
