Grade title: senior lieutenant. Branch of service: artillery. Division: the 162nd rifle division (the 1st formation). My great-grandfather was Valentin Alexandrovich Benediktov (1924-1994). He was born in Tambov in a very educated and intelligent family. He studied at gymnasium no. 7 – now it is one of the oldest in the city. After the 9th grade he went to the Tambov artillery school (although he really wanted to go to flight but did not pass on medical grounds). From school he signed up for the front. He finished fighting at Konigsberg. He received the medal “For the capture of Konigsberg”; the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Second World War 1941-1945". He was shell-shocked. After the war he remained in the military service, graduated from the military Academy and became an engineer. Went to serve in Belarus, the city of Starye Dorogy. There he met his fate -- the brown-eyed beauty Maria. This was my great – grandmother, Maria Vikentievna. Their first daughter, Tatiana, is my maternal grandmother. After Belarus they served both in Western Ukraine and in the Urals – in the city of Nizhny Tagil. In Tagil my great-grandfather served as chief engineer of the missile division. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In general, he was a very talented person in engineering, drawing and electrical engineering. At home various mechanisms appeared all the time which were made by grandfather Benedictov himself. For example, a New Year tree with lights that rotates around its axis. He also designed his own office apartment in the Urals – a large four-room apartment with a special layout of rooms of non-standard sizes. And later, by the way, he personally made for my grandmother Tatiana, who was a dentist by profession (the only doctor in our family) a gift – a portable drill – a small suitcase with all necessary tools. By the way, my grandmother treated her own teeth with this drill! But back to my great-grandfather. After the Urals he went to the post of head of the rocket factory in the city of Balashov. He retired there in the rank of a colonel engineer. And after that he lived until the end of his days in the city of Voronezh. In total, he had three children with Maria Vikentievna: Tatiana (my grandmother), Natalia and the youngest and very long–awaited son - Vladimir, who realized his father's dream and became a pilot! Now he is the commander of the Russian military transport aviation - lieutenant general V. V. Benediktov.