GREGORY MELIKIAN

SERGEANT: GREGORY MELIKIAN | AGE: (97) | RESIDES: PHOENIX, AZ UNITED STATES ARMY - SHAEF HEADQUARTERS OF SUPREME COMMAND MOS: General. Dwight D. Eisenhower (RADIO OPERATOR) SHORT BIOGRAPHY: Not many people living today can say they knew the late Dwight D. Eisenhower before he became president. GREGORY MELIKIAN not only served under him during World War II but also played a critical role in ending the monumental conflict. On May 7, 1945, then Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force General Eisenhower selected SGT. MELIKIAN to send a coded message to the world that the Germans had unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Expeditionary Force. Just 20 years old at the time, SGT. MELIKIAN was chosen because he was the youngest radio operator on duty then at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Reims, France, where the Germans signed papers of surrender. Today, the 97-year-old GREGORY MELIKIAN continues to work in Phoenix, Arizona.