A Billionaire's Life (Part1)

A Billionaire's Life (Part1)

this is the story of a man who was born in Fresno California in 1917 he was the youngest of four children in a close-knit Armenian the immigrant family who had fled from an unstable and falling apart Ottoman Empire.

His father was an adventurous fruit the vendor who always looked for new possibilities to make money out of nothing it worked for a short time and the family could afford a huge farm out in the San Joaquin Valley.

where they specialized in growing watermelons and raisins but soon the debt load became unbearable to the farms cash flow of the recession of 1921 finally turned his farm into bankruptcy and the family had to relocate to a poor neighborhood in Los Angeles times were hard in those days.

our hero will call it K, for now, found himself out on the streets aged nine trying to sell newspapers to contribute to his family's financial dilemma due to missed rent payments and forced evictions the family had to move around various la neighborhoods and so Kay constantly had to change schools Street and yard fights were an everyday thing for the young kid to survive and prove himself in his teens the fighting.

became too much and after being expelled from numerous schools and learning some mechanical skills he dropped out of school altogether after grade eight and that would be the end of his formal education kay entered the Southern California job the market as a middle school dropout at the worst possible time the Great Depression of the 1930s in 1933 the u.s.

started a new program for job creations and offered well-paid government-funded public work in national parks and forests nationwide Kay along so and his a best friend took up such an offer in the harsh conditions of the Sequoia National Park they worked through an entire six months during winter time and hi on top of a mountain digging around chopping wood in clearing paths he came back to LA.

A different beasts heart chiseled muscular and also knew his full height of 5 foot 11 his older brother who had been a boxer himself to earn money for the family immediately noticed Kay's transformation and started training him to become a boxer the talent was obvious and he became tough and scrawny fighter nicknamed rifle right.

who would go on and become the Pacific Amateur welterweight champion but seeing the disastrous effects prizefighting had had on his brother including improper speech and visible dents in his face Kay opted against turning professional and soon after found a new love for aviation his the flying instructor was the famous woman Pancho Barnes the pioneer aviator who had the credit of breaking America's air speed record as Kay did not have a wallet heavy enough to pay for the flying lessons then he had to milk and look after the cattle of Barnes as a fee for the flying lessons,

he got from her in 1941 kay became a licensed pilot after only six months of training and meanwhile, the whole of Europe was in the fully-fledged war which naturally demanded a huge demand for trained pilots despite us night reality at the time the Americans knew what was coming and so we're preparing to enter the war themselves kay was immediately hired as a cadet flying instructor by the US Army .

but it wasn't long before Kay wanted to actively join the war after seeing so many of his cadets flying over to Europe to fight but at the same time knew that if he enlisted he would be at the mercy of the US Army and that they would not let him go to actively fight due to his function as an instructor so he decided to take on a paid job at the British RAF forces the Royal Air Force to fly brand-new factory fresh warplanes over the Atlantic from America to Europe so they could be used in battle and so starting from 1942 kay flew 33 planes over the ocean and played his part in defeating the German war machine back in those days flying over the Atlantic was dangerous and over 500 colleagues of him lost their lives.