< Previous20 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 ST u ART VILLAN u EVA COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 21 COVER CONFIDENTIAL MEET KATERYNA GAIDO Coast Monthly chats with Kateryna Gaido, who graces the cover of this issue. Kateryna is married to Nick Gaido, whose family owns the famous Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant in Galveston. She talks about her fight for Ukraine and how an accident while riding a bicycle on Galveston’s seawall led her to love and to live in Texas. Where were you born and how did you come to live on the Texas coast? I was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. I lived there until I was 8 years old and then my family moved to Kyiv. I had a typical happy childhood and had no intent of moving anywhere outside of Ukraine, but I always wanted to explore the world. When I was 20, I decided it would be fun to travel to the United States to experience a different culture, improve my English and just have an adventure. I chose to do it through a work and travel program. It’s a sum- mertime program for college students during which you can work in the United States for three months and then travel for a few weeks. I was offered to choose from a few different states — job offers are mainly from seasonal restaurants, water and amusement parks in loca- tions that have a lot of tourists — but decided to go to Galveston to work at Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant. It seemed so cool to be a part of such an iconic place that has been in busi- ness for over 100 years. I am so happy I made that choice, because it was truly the best sum- mer, but more than anything I’m thankful, because that’s also how I met my husband. Tell us a little about how you met Nick and about your family. When I came to the United States and started working at Gaido’s, Nick had just come back from the Culinary Institute of America in New York and was getting reacquaint- ed working in the family business. I’m sure we had seen each other at some point, but never formally met. The kitchen was a busy place, espe- cially with 50-plus Ukrainians who had just joined Gaido’s. One day, I was riding my bike on the seawall and was hit by a car. Luck- ily, I was fine. I was mainly shaken up from what happened, but was still tak- en to the University of Texas Medical Branch by an ambulance. The hospital staff knew that I had no family in town, so they decided to call work to let them know what happened. Nick came to check on me and as soon as he walked into the room I felt different. It felt as if my mom came to visit me. It was such a peaceful, calming feeling. He sat there with me for hours, trying to keep my mind off of what happened. He showed me pictures of his dog and his recent fish- ing trips and, somehow, we ended up having deep conversations about life, what kind of plans we had and even how many kids we wanted — not to- gether, but in general. I knew that day that he was going to be my husband. It was so bizarre, I always thought that love at first sight came with some kind of “wow effect” and lots of passion. Instead, it was a calm feeling of knowing. We stayed friends for a few weeks but both knew that there was definitely more between us. We started to date in the middle of the summer, but both knew it wasn’t just summer love. The summer came to an end and it was time for me to go back home. I went back to Ukraine, we continued to date and knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but I had to finish my last year of college first. We Skyped every day and Nick visited me in Kyiv a few times. We decided that after I got my degree, I would move to Texas and we would get married. I was so eager to start our life together, that I skipped my graduation ceremony and flew to Texas the day after my last final. We were so happy and three weeks later we got married. In June, we celebrat- ed our 10th wedding anniversary and have an 8-year-old son, James, and a 4-year-old daughter, Lily. What have you and your family done personally to help support Ukraine? Since Russia invaded Ukraine, we knew we had to do something to help. Nick was actually the one com- ing up with ideas, because at that time it felt like my world just shattered and I was very depressed. I’m so thankful that he took the lead. We started raising money through Gaido’s by accepting do- nations in person and online and donating part of sales. We also made some T-shirts in support for Ukraine and started selling them at Gaido’s gift shop. Overall, we raised over $65,000 in the past months and I am very grateful for everyone’s generosity. This money will help many people in Ukraine. We also make personal donations whenever we see someone in need. “In the time of any disaster, people come together and stand with one another.” KATERYNA GAIDO22 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 EXPERIENCEMATTERS! www.SouthLandTitle.net 409.744.0727-6710StewartRd.,Ste200,Galveston,TX77551 We've helped families make their dream of home ownership a reality for over 25 years as Galveston County's local, family-owned title company. Trust the experts on your next real estate transaction! COVER CONFIDENTIAL What’s the main thing Americans can do to help? America has been very generous and supportive towards Ukraine, but if you per- sonally want to help, there are many ways to show your support: • Talk about the war in Ukraine. I know over time people tend to forget about certain issues, but for Ukrainians it’s been over 100 days of constant horror. Raising awareness is very important. • Donate. There are many large and small organizations that help Ukraine. Some are based in the United States, some in Ukraine. Find which one you like and make a donation if you are feeling generous. No amount is too small. You can, of course, also donate through Gaido’s at store.gaidos.com. We’ve been sending all donations to various organizations, including Red Cross, UNICEF and Mission 823. • If you own a business, organize a fund- raiser. So many people have already done that in Galveston County and nearby areas. It has been absolutely heartwarming to see so much support. • Sponsor a Ukrainian family through “Uniting for Ukraine” program. The process is pretty simple and you can find more infor- mation on uscis.gov. • Pray. I strongly believe in the power of prayer and Ukraine needs lots of them right now. What do you love most about the United States? United States has many great things, but my favorite is most definitely the people. Americans are such kind, friendly, supportive, down-to-earth folks. It has been such a plea- sure to live among all the wonderful people in this community in the past 10 years and such an honor to become an American. What do you think Ukraine and the United States have in common? The first thing that comes to mind is love for freedom. America is the country that has it at its core and Ukraine is currently prov- ing the same. Another similarity between Americans and Ukrainians that struck me is that in the time of any disaster, people come together and stand with one anoth- er. No matter how different our traditions, languages, lifestyles are, we still have the same basic values. I am very proud to be Ukrainian-American! BANDELLA — A BAND OF ASTRONAUTS Sat, Aug 6 | 8 PM TICKETS START AT JUST $18! TheGrand.com | 409.765.1894 Get ready for a performance that’s truly out of this world! What happens when three musicians and former NASA Astronauts team up with a keyboardist and a vocalist? You get Bandella! 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The first floor of his Galveston home holds his Navy mementos that survived Hurricane Ike. (Opposite) A photo of Janek’s Navy training class. Janek is pictured on the far left. “The shortest one in the class,” he said. COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 27 FEATURE ‘THESE ARE MY REMINDERS’ How one Navy vet lied his way into the teeth of the beast story by MICHAEL A. SMITH | photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS I t would be hard to find anybody who worked harder or lied more than Eddie Janek did to achieve a youthful goal to put himself in harm’s way during World War II. Through forgery, and with the help of accomplices, Janek managed to join the U.S. Navy at the age of 15. At 17, he went ashore at one of the most dangerous places on Earth doing one of the most deadly jobs ever devised by man. A spry 95 now, Janek has outlived all the buddies who shared the awe- some and frequently awful experi- ences of that war. He’s got his memories, though, and a room full of mementos — military patches, posters, rows of the medals, a fleet of model airplanes and photos of a fresh-faced teenage boy in a crisp uniform grinning and clueless. It’s a museum to a long life that began inauspiciously, was directed by luck, good and bad, and took its protagonist on an improbable journey from a cotton patch, through two wars, to 16 years in elected office and into the ranks of entrepre- neurial millionaires. It began April 28, 1927, at Provi- dence Hospital in Waco, where Edward Alois Janek was born, the product of an affair between his widowed mother and a married firefighter, he said. The family worked on a cotton farm in West, Texas, a town of about 2,500 today about 25 miles north of Waco. “We were dirt poor,” Janek said. Along with that hard lot, fate gave the young Janek a severe stutter, which he still works around today.28 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 FEATURE The family moved to Galveston in 1942 when his sister married a man who’d gotten a job on the island, he said. Janek had completed the eighth grade. That would be the extent of his civilian schooling, he said. “I came to Galveston wearing overalls, beat-up shoes and a straw hat,” Janek said. “I had never turned on an electric light or flushed a toilet.” He acquired a bicycle and applied for a delivery job at Broadway Drug Store, where they asked whether he knew the city well. “I lied and said ‘Oh yes, I know Galveston real well,’” Janek said. He got hopelessly lost but met another boy who showed him around. Needing a second job to augment the 8 cents an hour he was making, Janek applied to be a pinsetter at a bowling alley. Had he ever set pins before, they asked. “I lied and said ‘Oh yes, I have a lot of experience,” Janek said. After watching Janek for a minute, another pinsetter asked two questions — Had he ever set pins before and had he ever even been in a bowling alley before. He’d done neither. The colleague taught Janek how to do the job. “I don’t know why people always helped me,” Janek said. “Maybe they felt sorry for me because I stuttered so bad.” Those pragmatic lies were test runs for the first big one, which occurred at a recruiting office where Janek, still 15, forged his moth- er’s name and joined the Navy. He didn’t get past Houston before the lie was discovered, though. He was threatened with harsh punishment and sent home. His response was to alter the birth date on his Catholic confirmation certificate and try again. Back in Houston, he met a skeptical med- ical officer. “He didn’t buy that I was 17, and said it didn’t matter anyway because I was too small,” Janek said. “I had to be at least 5’2 and 120 pounds and I was only 5’1 and 90 pounds.” Janek pleaded his case, though. “I told him nothing was going to stop me from joining the Navy,” he said. It must have been a compelling argument, because that Navy officer falsified an official government form to state this stuttering boy was qualified to serve. “From 15 to 17, my whole life was lies,” Janek said. Those caught up with him in 1944 at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, where we worked as a plane captain, responsible for pre-flight checks on training aircraft. “I still can’t believe the Navy put a dumb 16 year old in charge of what was probably a $2 million airplane,” Janek said. In March that year, Janek was called before COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuLY 2022 29 a panel of officers that had determined he was not, in fact, old enough to serve. “I tried to lie, but they told me they weren’t interested in hearing any of my bull- shit,” Janek said. Still, instead of putting him out of the Navy, they confined him to barracks from March 25 to his 17th birthday on April 28, he said. “I could leave to eat, that’s it. When I turned 17, I was back in the Navy.” A comeuppance, of sorts, came when Janek requested sea duty, thinking he’d serve as a plane captain on an aircraft carrier. In- stead, the Navy sent him to San Bruno, Cali- fornia, and into the gentle hands of the U.S. Marine Corps to become a beach master. “This was at a racetrack,” Janek said. “We slept in the stalls and learned basic infantry skills. Those Marines really loved training sailors.” On Sept. 15, 1944, Janek went ashore on the island of Peleliu with the 1st Marine Division as a beach master responsible for keeping order during the chaos of an am- phibious assault. It was an extremely dangerous job. Beach masters had to stay on the beach, had to stay upright and constantly move around. “We wore the Marine green,” Janek said. “We went in with the first wave and had to control the beach. Our casualties were high.” The Battle of Peleliu resulted in the high- est casualty rate of any amphibious assault in U.S. military history. About 40 percent of the 28,000 Marines and soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 81st Infantry Division were casualties — 1,800 killed, 8,000 wounded. Once the beach was secure, Janek and other beach masters worked as stretcher bearers, also a bullet-magnet job. He did the same again that October during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines. After some rest, he finished the war among the crew of a troop ship. He was aboard one in 1946 for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He left the regular Navy, but stayed in the reserves and got called up for combat in 1951. He was aboard a troopship and went ashore during the second landings at Inchon. Janek spent a career working for the telephone company, retired in 1984 and founded J&J Telecommunications. He made a million and has lived long enough to give it all to his children and charity, he said. For years, a group of about 16 veterans would gather from time to time on the first floor of Eddie Janek’s house among the me- mentos to swap stories. They’re are all gone now. Faded away like old soldiers do. “These are my reminders,” Janek said with a gesture toward his artifacts. “They are memories of all the things we did when we were young.” U.S. Navy veteran Eddie Janek talks about how he lied about his age to join the Navy during World War II. (Opposite, from top) A model of a Corsair hangs with other World War II aircraft that Janek saw in his time in the Navy during World War II; a display of Janek’s medals from his service in the Navy. Next >