Justin Paukstaitis, known as Gene, was of Lithuanian descent. He was born in New York in 1916 and enlisted in the US Army in May 1942. He served as a military policeman in Britain during the Second World War, and was admitted to the 2nd General Hospital at Headington, Oxfordshire for an ingrown toe nail in September 1942. He was  stationed at  Whitby, Yorkshire, and later transferred to Thurleigh. Gene met Bella Goodwin during a chance meeting in Bedford, and went on to marry her in October 1944. He remained in Britain after the Second World War, working as a driver for Randalls in Bedford. He died in 1983.