(picture from the 4 July 1943 Detroit Free Press ) He was always "Grandpa John," even though he wasn't my biological maternal grandfather. He was the third and last husband of my mom's mom, and I would see them on holidays and one week during the summer, when I would stay with them in their small brick house on Outer Drive in Dearborn, MI. "Grandpa John" wasn't grandfatherly in any sense, but he did have a cluttered basement with a working bar and cool collectible Jim Beam bottles, so being of kid of some imagination, I didn't mind the visits. John mostly sat in the den, chain smoking and drinking, semi-watching television while he fell in and out of sleep. When I was young, I just thought that's what old dudes did. Later, I found out there was more to the story. From a 1943 citation: The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to John T. Yaksich (336911), Private, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism