Α 97-year-old shipowner and philanthropist this week announced that he donates practically all of his fortune to Greece’s armed forces, saying he wants to exit life in the manner in which he arrived, namely, "barefoot".
As such, Iakovos Tsounis, a veteran of WWII, declared that he will leave 23 million euros for Greece’s defense, along with 60 new amphibious special forces vessels.
Tsounis was born in the western port city of Patras and is a descendant of fighters of the Greek War of Independence between 1821 and 1829. He himself fought at the age of 16 on the Albanian front against Mussolini's invading army in 1940.
For his overall contributions, he honored by the Greek military in April 2020, following a recommendation by Greece’s defense minister, and was also elevated to the rank of honorary major general.