Ena orew 8ema kai me elliniko endiaferon, mias kai o Co pilot eitane apw elliniki katagoi "James Angelo Verinis"
4 LT. COL. JAMES A. VERINIS MEMORIAL HIGHWAY
Woodbridge Road Named for Fellow Saint
Barbara Parishioner James A.Verinis
by Jamie Verinis
At various points in the lives of its parishioners, the church
takes note of individuals in some way. We graduate from
Sunday school, receive honors from our service in the AHEPA
or the choir. Even after they have passed away, we make sure
that the roles people played when they were alive, and indeed
continue to play in our lives through our memories of them,
are not taken for granted.
The Orthodox Church remembers the departed in the prayers
of every Divine Liturgy. Memorial services traditionally take
place on the third, ninth, and fortieth day, as well as one year
after a death. On the various 'Saturdays of the Soul' and on
Memorial Day we make further effort to remember them.
Koliva helps make our memories take material form. In that
spirit, thanks to two Saint Barbara parishioners (one of whom
is a Connecticut state representative) a section of Route 313
in Woodbridge has been designated "Lt. Col. James A. Verinis
Memorial Highway" in honor of my father Jim, a Woodbridge
resident and lifelong member of our church. Close friends
and family, representatives of local VFW chapters, and fellow
church members gathered at the gazebo near the Woodbridge
Town Hall on a sticky, hot July 13th to acknowledge the
designation with appropriate ceremony.
Taking the advice of Alex Marathas of New Haven, State
Representative Themis Klarides (R-114) introduced legislation
to name this particular portion of Rimmon Road after James
Angelo Verinis, a World War II veteran. In response to this and
other proposals made to the State Transportation Committee,
such as those dealing with the Connecticut taxi industry or
motor vehicle width laws, the House of Representatives and
the State Senate approved the designation of commemorative
names for ten state highway segments and fi ve state bridges
during the last legislative session.
My father''s parents, Peter and Diamando Verinis emigrated to
southern Connecticut in the early 1900s from Agios Petros, a
small village in the Peloponnesse. The third of four brothers,
Jim was born in 1916. The Verinis family lived among the
burgeoning Greek community in the New Haven area at
the time and attended Saint
Barbara from its inception
in 1919.
Jim was a captain of the
Hillhouse High School
basketball team and went
on to study business
a dministration on a
basketball scholarship at
UCONN. Upon graduating
in 1941, he enlisted in the
U.S. Army Air Corps and became a pilot of P-39 and P-40
fi ghter planes. After two near fatal training debacles, Jim
requested to fl y something with, as he consistently put it,
"more fans up front". Thus began his career in the much
larger B-17 bombers, known also as 'fl ying fortresses'. As
the pilot of his own ship, the "Connecticut Yankee" (he was
Connecticut through and through) and co-pilot of the famed
"Memphis Belle", Jim was the fi rst in the 8th Air Force to
achieve the goal of piloting 25 missions in the European
Theatre of the war. He was decorated with such honors as
the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 3
oak clusters (indicating the number of Air Medals received
subsequent to the fi rst), and inducted into the Caterpillar
Club, made up of those airmen who successfully parachute
out of disabled aircraft. In 1944 he returned to the U.S. with
the rest of the Memphis Belle crew upon their completion
of 25 missions for a War Department sponsored tour of the
United States ordered by President Roosevelt to promote
the sale of war bonds. As the documentary fi lm about the
Belle shot during the war by Hollywood director and Army
offi cer William Wyler points out, the tour was to "return to
America to train new crews and to tell the people what we''re
doing here, to thank them for their support and to tell them
to keep it up, so we can keep it up". This was their 26th and
fi nal mission.
State Reprentative Themis Klarides is pictured presenting the new Lt.
Col. James A. Verinis Highway Sign to Marie Verinis, Steven Verinis,
Mary Ann Verinis, Peter Verinis, Alexander Verinis and Jamie Verinis
To apopanw ar8rw to exw anebasi apw ena pdf tis eklisias Agia Barbara stin amerik.
Prodromos
