Vladimir Jake JakovenkoInducted into the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame and the Special Forces Hall of Fame, 'Jake' Jakovenko was born in the Donbas region of Ukraine in 1940 under the Soviet terror of Josef Stalin. Because of Operation Barbarossa, the Jakovenko family finds hemselves in Nazi Berlin. When the Soviets occupy East Berlin, the desperate family flees to English refugee camps, eventually crossing the ocean to Ellis Island. Jake grows up in Jersey City within sight of the Statue of Liberty in the 1950s but is a street-fighting rebel without a cause. An influential judge and the threat of reform school guide him to enlist in the US Army at age 17. Read More Read Less