Semeiko, Nikolai Illarionovich

Semeiko, Nikolai Illarionovich 

Born Mar. 25, 1923, in the city of Slaviansk, now in Donetsk Oblast; died Apr. 20, 1945, in East Prussia. Military assault pilot; captain (1945). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 19, 1945, and June 29, 1945, posthumously). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Semeiko graduated from the Voroshilovgrad Air Force Pilots’ School in 1942 and from the advanced training courses for the command staff in the same year. In the Great Patriotic War he was a pilot of the 505th Assault Air Regiment from March 1943 and then a flight commander in 1943–44, deputy squadron commander in 1944–45, squadron commander from January to March 1945, and navigator of the 75th Guards Assault Air Regiment on the Fourth Ukrainian and Third Byelorussian fronts. Semeiko made 227 combat flights. He died in combat.

Semeiko was awarded the Order of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii Third Class, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and the Order of the Patriotic War First Class.