A Military Historian
Constantine “Gus” George Chamales retired as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army after a 21-year career. In retirement he has managed the military ministry of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma, Washington, a task that documents and honors those Church members who have served their country. With a deep interest in history, he has also been able to trace his family back to the 1700s.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Gus’s grandfather, Elias (Louis) Chamales (aka Tsamalis) (1881-1933), was from the village of Kosmas, near Sparta in the Greek Peloponnese. He followed two brothers to the United States in the early 1900s and settled in Chicago, Illinois. They operated the Green Mill Gardens restaurant/lounge which is open to this day. Among their notorious customers were Al Capone and other gangsters. The restaurant eventually sold, probably under duress, to another gangster called “Machine-gun McGurk.” Louis’ brother, Tom and a son, also Tom, fought in World War II and wrote a couple of books including (Never So Few) which became a movie starring Frank Sinatra. Young Tom was married to the actress Helen O’Connell from 1957 to 1960. They had two children, Gus’s cousins, Tom and Jerry.
Louis was about 40 years old when he married Penelope Michalaris (1883-1990), also from Kosmas, when she was about 17 or 18. They had two children, Gus’s father George, born in the late 1920s and his thea (aunt) Irene. Louis died when George was around eight years old. Penelope raised her children during the Depression on Chicago’s south side and made wine which she sold to another Greek for $5.00 a gallon. Later, she married Steve Gotches, the grandfather that Gus knew, who was from the town of Kokla, near Kalamata ??, (the map shows Kokla quite aways north of Kalamata) Greece. Steve, a wonderful, kind-hearted man, became a father to George and Irene. The family moved to Oak Lawn, Illinois, in the 1970s where they remained until their passing.
Gus’s father, George, grew up in Chicago and after high school served with the Army Air Corps for five years during World War II, mostly in Brazil. When he returned to Chicago, he worked as a butcher and in the steel mills. George had considered becoming a priest but that never happened. His marriage was arranged with Nancy Papoutsis from South Dakota. The couple settled in Mitchell, South Dakota, and George worked in Nancy’s father’s restaurant along with her two brothers-in-law, both also named George. The three Georges broke off from her father and moved to Huron, South Dakota where they opened the Huron Café. The couple had three children, Penelope in 1949, Louis in 1950 and Gus on October 8, 1953. George and Nancy had returned to Chicago but were later divorced and Gus has had no knowledge of her since that time.
George was a single father raising three children while making his living working in restaurants. He and his children would travel to Chicago several times a year for holidays and stay with their grandparents during the summers. In Chicago, George married his grade school “sweetheart,” Mary Carras. Mary’s father, Gus Carras, came from Tripoli, Greece, as a young boy with his brother and uncle and they worked shining shoes in New York. The uncle was to use their earnings to bring the boys’ mother from Greece but did not do so. The boys left their uncle and moved to Chicago where they opened a pool hall. Gus Carras married Athena Christopoulos, also from Tripoli. In 19?? George, Mary and the children moved back to Huron where, one by one, the three Georges left the restaurant business. After the restaurant finally sold in 1968, the family moved to Pierre, South Dakota, where Mary died in November of 1996 and George in 2004.
GUS’S STORY
Gus attended school through the seventh grade in Huron and finished high school in Pierre. His family followed Greek customs at home. There were several Greek families in Pierre including the Karidis and Spiropoulos families who operated small grocery stores which had the essentials including liquor. The closest Greek Orthodox Church was three and one-half hours away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Gus’s older brother and sister spoke a bit more Greek than he, but with both parents being first generation Americans, use of Greek was not extensive.
His desire at the time was to join the United States Army. However, with his older siblings attending South Dakota State University, Gus was offered a trip to Greece for the summer by his grandfather on condition that he also attend college. Fortunately, his cousins, one a captain in the Greek Air Force, spoke English and took Gus on several outings in the country. He enjoyed his time in Greece but experienced a “step back in time” with the absence of modern amenities and almost no cars except for taxis and transport by horses or donkeys. He remembers his relatives making their own wine, harvesting olives for olive oil and raising and slaughtering chickens and lambs. On a trip back to Greece in 1996 he was amazed at the progress in the village but somewhat disappointed that the old wine cask was no longer in use.
Gus’s college education took over four years with his goal of entering the Army as an officer. In ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) he was part of a drill team called the Persian Rifles. In the winter of 1972, after a drill team competition in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, he met an attractive young woman walking down the hall with a bottle of champagne. She was Ingrid Andenas with the Marshones drill team and Gus said, “That is the woman for me.” Ingrid grew up on a farm in City??? South Dakota, where her siblings still live. Theirs was a long-distance relationship between the University of South Dakota at Vermillion and South Dakota State at Brookings. Ingrid transferred to Brookings in their junior year and Ingrid (Gus says “she’s much smarter than me”) went on to earn her master’s degree in French at the University of Minnesota. When Gus graduated in December of 1975 they decided to get married on a Thursday night. They obtained their marriage certificate on Friday, were married in the Lutheran Church on Saturday, May 22, 1976, and were on their way the next day to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where Gus began his military career.
After completing his basic officer’s training at Fort Knox, Gus was assigned to Bad Kissingen, Germany, as a Calvary officer performing reconnaissance activities with a combination of tanks and fighting vehicles. His mission from 1976 to 1979 was to patrol the East-West border and, in case of a threat, be prepared to engage the enemy.
Back in the United States he spent nine months to complete the infantry officers advance course at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then assigned as support squadron operations officer at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and later became a headquarters troop commander. It was here that their oldest son, Steve was born in 1982. After Ingrid finished her master’s degree she developed her interest in medicine while working as a medical secretary and took medical courses in El Paso. She was encouraged to attend medical school and did so at the University of South Dakota or in Texas? Meanwhile, Gus was a single dad with two sons (Kristoffer born in 1986) and was finishing his obligation to teach ROTC at the University?? ((My battery died at this point, so the sequence needs help here)) During Ingrid’s residency in El Paso, Gus was serving as operations officer for the Third Armor Calvary during preparations for Operation Desert Shield. Even though doctors were badly needed Gus and Ingrid’s commanders declined to send both to help in Desert Shield. Gus was sent to Saudi Arabia in 1991 where his unit moved close to the border with Kuwait and established a “screen line” while the rest of the army deployed behind the line. Following intensive training, Operation Desert Storm began with a month-long bombing campaign followed by the ground attack into Iraq engaging Iraqi units.
When an Army helicopter crashed, Gus’s unit moved to secure the site and came upon a long chain-link fence. With three Cavalry troops, 27 Bradley fighting vehicles and 40 tanks on line, someone fired a shot and everyone began firing. One specially-outfitted tank cut through the fence and the killing and capturing of Iraqis began. When the firing subsided, troops were able to recover several enemy vehicles and ammunition including one tank and a command vehicle with extensive intelligence material. During that time Gus’s group was able to stop and confront a Chinese fighting vehicle loaded with Iraqi troops, weapons and ammunition. It was a very tense situation where, everyone surrendered except for three Iraqis.
As one of the first units to be deployed, Gus’s was the first to return to the United States having lost only two men due to mine field explosions. It was a very rewarding feeling as they were welcomed home with crowds and parades just as troops had been received in World War II.
Gus became executive officer for the squadron for one year while Ingrid finished her obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) residency. They then were assigned to Fort Irwin, the Army’s national training center near Barstow, California. In California, Gus was the live fire training officer while Ingrid worked at the adjacent hospital. Their next assignment was in Schweitsburg, Germany, where Gus worked as crisis action team chief in the Chief of Staff office for the Army in Europe during deployment of troops from Germany to Bosnia. And, Ingrid continued to work at Wurzburg. They moved back to South Dakota in 1996 and Gus retired the following year.
GO WEST CHAMALES
For the next 13 years Ingrid worked at the Brookings medical clinic and Gus was a stay-at-home dad until their son Steve entered the Naval Academy in 20??. Gus then began working for the Greenleaf Assisted Living Corporation, eventually bought into the corporation and later opened a facility in Minneapolis?? Minnesota. Ingrid, who Gus lovingly describes as a brilliant woman and phenomenal physician, was in constant demand by her patients. The demands of her work were beginning to show in her health. When a classmate from El Paso who was the OBGYN director at Madigan Hospital near Tacoma, Washington, telephoned and invited her to join the staff there, she initially declined. Gus had walked into her office and overheard the call and said, “You call him back right now!” In September of 2009 they moved to the Tacoma area with the intent of staying for five years.
The five years have passed and the Chamales family has found the northwest to be very satisfying, especially as the winters are much milder than those in South Dakota. Gus and Ingrid have built their retirement home. Their son Steve finished his Marine Corps active duty including time in Afghanistan and Iraq and serves in the reserves. Kristoffer also served in the Army in Iraq. Both boys are now near their parents. Ingrid continues her work at Madigan Hospital.
When looking for a Greek restaurant in their new environment, all they could find was a souflaki shop. They found a better selection of Greek food at the St. Nicholas Greek festival. It became their parish and they had their marriage blessed there in 2012???. Gus has also become the keeper of the military ministries program where he uses his organizational and research skills to gather photos, stories and documents of those St. Nicholas members who served in the military.
Gus’s life has been influenced by generations of relatives who have served at one time or another in the military and that heritage has passed to his sons. He has always been interested in the history of Sparta since his family comes from that area. His office walls are filled with photos of military events and several military items from his relatives are protected in a museum case. The family’s Greek and Norwegian backgrounds have equally influenced their sons although Kristoffer or Steve once asked, “Why am I the darkest kid in my class?”
Gus wants to be remembered as “the luckiest man in the world because I met my wife.” His love of country and patriotism is clear when asked for any words of wisdom. His reply? “We live in a great country! What a great country! I love America!”
By John and Joann Nicon, March 4, 2018
VIDEO SEGMENTS
Selling Wine to Raise Children
Gus’s Experience in Greece
Preparing for Desert Storm
Capturing Iraqis and Equipment
PHOTOS
Gus Chamales, 2018
Grandfather Steve Gotches, date
Grandmother Penelope Gotches, date
Grandfather Gust Carras, 1918
George and Mary Chamales, 1975
Mary and George wedding, (l-r) aunt Tessie, Athena Carras, Grandmother Nota, Mary, Jimmy, Grandfather Gotches, (are these names correct??)1940??date
George Chamales, date
Louie and Gus Chamales, date
Gus in ROTC, 1972
Ingrid and Gus, 1975
Ingrid and Gus wedding, 1976
Sgt. David Cronin, Sgt. Kirkland, Brian Ray and Major Gus, 1991
Home from Desert Storm with Ingrid and Steve, 1991
Gus, Steve and Ingrid on Andenas family farm, date
Visiting Greece, Gus, Ingrid, Steve, Kristoffer, 1996
Gus with photos, 2018
Gus and Ingrid, 2016
Kristoffer, Gus, Ingrid, Steve, date
Photo 1 and 16 by John Nicon, all others from the Chamales family collection.
SOURCES
Video interview by John and Joann Nicon, February 2018