Joseph S. Jurskis

Joseph S. Jurskis was born in Lithuania in January of 1940. His parents were both educated professionals in the mainstream of social and professional life in independent Lithuania. The ravages of German invasion and the Soviet invasion in late 1944 left no other choice than to flee WEST. By late summer of 1944 our family and two college-aged cousins (both aviation cadets in Lithuanian military college) retreated to our orchard plantation in the lowlands of Lithuania. Currently the property is the MEDVEGALIS NATIONAL PARK. For me, an almost 5 year old, the presence of the aviation cadet cousins that talked a lot about airplanes and flying and that built and flew models -- this became an inoculation for love of anything regarding flight.

The ravages of a war front moving through the area left us without electrical power. Most vehicles were confiscated by German and especially the Soviet commandos. There was zero fuel available. My parents loaded a hay wagon with a team of two and fashioned a Conestoga-type cover made from a hanging tapestry that had been hanging in our great room. Dodging German and Soviet advance elements, we departed at night in October of 1944. In Lithuania at Latitude 44 North while sleeting.. Through my father's cunning and navigational skills we penetrated the oscillating Eastern German-Soviet front by avoiding improved roads. This was a six-week odyssey West. We lived off the land and the agricultural supplies we packed. We moved on. My dad had predicted that the Allies would prevail and he wanted to get us as close to USA Army controlled territory as soon as possible. He was spot on. We reached Southern Germany (Bavaria). The war ended and we were in the US Army controlled "American Zone." Needless to say, to my child's eyes, the ability to witness air-to­ air and air-to-ground combat, as commented on by my aviation cadet cousins, etched into my awareness the miracle of flight.

Once the US Army established pacification and control, thousands of "stateless11 refugees such as me and my extended family were segregated by nationality and quartered in US Army and UN controlled DP Camps. (Displaced Persons Camp). Our desire to emigrate to the USA was delayed by the National Quota Act: we had to wait close to 5 years to come to the land of the free! I attended the exiled community-established schools through the fourth grade. As luck would have it my classroom windows faced the alignment to a US Army Air Corps approach and departure path. This had an effect on my academics. I was forever cautioned and/or reprimanded for watching US aircraft flying in and out. Socially I paid a price - my classmate bullies were forever tormenting me for my assertion that, "I will be flying those when I grow up!"

Fast forward... its 1950 and we are immigrants, poor, and with limited resources. I was determined to master a new language and to fit in the new world-I succeeded by listening to all available radio soaps after school. (Sky King - was one of them). I would walk several miles to watch activity at the Philadelphia International Airport.

By my mid-teens I would use public transit to cut grass or cleanup at several local airports in exchange for an occasional hour or two in a surplus J3 and, on occasion, a Luscombe/Silvaire. Formal training was out of reach financially.

I did well in high school, I interrupted my third year college, and by the time I figured out how to get back, I was drafted! Well, I was delighted to serve my new mother country. I passed all the tests for flight training but my vision kept me out. Given my ROTC experience I was immediately admitted to the US ARMY.

Officer Candidate School was big. I was Commissioned and immediately volunteered for Airborne school and every other exotic training available. It served me well career wise! Whilst at my first stateside duty assignment I joined a Military-Civilian Aero Club and started dual training in 1963. I also bought my first J3 in questionable airworthiness condition for $480.00 in 1963. I sold that first questionable J-3 a month later and bought a cream puff Cub {1948 J3) for

$1,150.00. I put it to work. I contracted with WWII vintage retired CFls !!  I flew that Cub 300 hours before being . Thereafter every stateside base of my assignment I was given permission to keep my airplanes on-base in exchange of teaching ground school and giving tailwheel check outs to rated pilot club members. During my 7 year career while at stateside assignments I had a series of personal aircraft on base. In the lot including J3 and Globe Swift and a Meyers

200. Following my tour of active duty and an extended tour in Vietnam (2^nd Bn 503 Inf 173^rd Airborne BOE) on my return to the USA, I married a Georgia girl and settled in Atlanta Georgia. Immediately I was embraced by a social club of aircraft owners and pilots. The organization is no longer active but in its membership, I was involved in structuring a curriculum for "safety training" of the non-pilot wives.  During my involvement with the organization and whilst serving as the chair of our neighborhood civic organization I was involved in visiting schools and making career presentations for the students. During the year that followed I took pride in being the local go to "tail-wheel check-out guy." For the following forty­

five years, in addition to my business ventures in real estate and yacht and aircraft .. brokerage, and my navigation and survival training programs, I promoted aviation and aircraft ownership.  In summary, while I have some 3,400 hours PIC and CFI time, it would not be inaccurate to say that I had an aviation influence on better than 2,500 people. Some beginning flight students, some youngsters launched

into aviation profession, complex aircraft check outs, some trained to advance ratings, flight reviews, and a number launched into aircraft ownership.

Currently, I now live in St. Simons Ga. and as it states on my calling card, I specialize in providing "professional flight instruction for the professional." I commit, contractually, to the trainee client to see them through their desired rating.

I may charge a little more than many instructors, but I offer a unique structured program involving ground and dual sessions followed by debrief post flight sessions and written Post Training Memos within 24 hours emailed to the student. This is my answer to the commonly heard complaint in flying schools that, "after I became accustomed to my CFI- he's off to fly for the airlines."

For personal flying, I currently own a near-pristine vintage BE35A. It should be noted that my son, Chester, is a rated pilot SEL, MEL, INS, ATP. Currently Chester owns and flies a BE35S which he bought and paid for himself. All this is my living the American dream of success in life and aviation. My other son does not fly but he is an ordained minister.

 Joe currently lives in St. Simons Georgia where he has been for many years and still instructs and flies his Bonanza.