January / February 2015 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 3

Dr. Vytautas Andrius Graič-iūnas is one of the mostnoted Lithuanians, famous

for his contribution to managementtheory. He studied how many sub-ordinates a manager can best super-vise and came up with an equationthat is still widely cited today, show-ing that, as the number of peoplesupervised increases in a linear fash-ion, the number of possible groupsand relationships among those su-pervised rises exponentially, provingmathematically that the optimumnumber of subordinates should notexceed four or five.

Recounting his academic con-tributions in detail is beyond thescope of this article. Here, we focuson his interesting and multifacetedlife story, which begins in Chicago,

extends through Europe, includinga stint as a World War I aviator, thenmoves on to Kaunas Lithuania, toend with his death under mysteriouscircumstances in a labor camp inSiberia.

Vytautas was born on August17, 1898, in Chicago, Illinois, to An-drius Lucian Graičiūnas and UršulėVarankaitė, immigrants born andraised in Lithuania. Unlike the vastmajority of their fellow Lithuanian-American immigrants, Andrius and

Uršulė were not peasant farmersseeking the economic opportunitiesAmerica offered, but were attractedby its liberty and freedom. Andriuscame from a wealthy Kaunas familyand grew up among the nation’s in-telligentsia. He was a physician anda respected member of the Czaristaristocracy that ruled the country,yet he embraced the dream thensweeping the Baltic nation of a freeLithuanian state. Because of his po-litical activities, Andrius soon had to

Vytautas Andrius GraičiūnasLithuanian-American Management Theorist and Aviation Hero

Vytauta Graičiūnas

by Henry L. Gaidis

Andrius (father), Vytautas, and his mother Uršulė

Graičiūnas Formula:

R = S (2S / 2 + (S-1))

R = number of relationships

S = number of subordinates

flee his homeland to avoid arrest.He immigrated to America withUršulė in July 1893 and settled inChicago, where three sons, Vytautas,Algirdas, and Victor, were born.While living in Chicago, Andrius be-came a well-known surgeon. Hecontinued to be a Lithuanian activist,working tirelessly for the good ofless fortunate members of theLithuanian-American community.

Uršulė passed away while their chil-dren were still quite young, so it wasleft to the widowed doctor to instillin them a love of America and thedream of a free and independentLithuania. His compassion to helpothers less fortunate included wel-coming his Lithuanian-born niece,Unė Babickaitė, into his home andraising her like a daughter.

Vytautas grew up in the Lithuan-ian-American community ofChicago, where he was a gifted pupil,and went on to graduate from theUniversity of Chicago; not a smallfeat during an era when few Ameri-cans finished high school. Most ofVytautas’s biographies, after docu-menting his date and place of birth,and studies at the University ofChicago from 1914 to 1917, quicklymove on to discuss his subsequentcontributions to engineering andmanagement theory. At most, there

might be a single line of text indi-cating Vytautas had served in theU.S. Army in France from 1917 to1919. These historians overlook thatLieutenant Graičiūnas was a WorldWar I combat aviator. Lithuanianstake pride in the postwar aviationexploits of Steponas Darius and Sta-sys Girėnas, but have forgottenGraičiūnas was the only Lithuanian-American known to fly combat mis-

sions in the skies over France duringthe Great War.

“And now for the rest of thestory,” in the words of the late radiocommentator Paul Harvey, Jr. Vy-tautas Graičiūnas, a gifted universitystudent, chose to leave his studiesin April 1917, when he heard his na-tion’s call for volunteers to fight forfreedom in World War I. Althoughthe fighting, which had begun in Eu-rope in 1914, became known for nu-merous technical innovations, nonecaught the imagination of the gen-eral public more than aviation. Priorto the war, military aviation con-sisted largely of flying over enemytroops and fortifications for recon-naissance; but with the advent ofthe machine gun and better aircraft,the pilot became romanticized as amodern-day knight taking to the skyto give battle with the enemy. It isnot known what drew Vytautas to

aviation, but he quickly volunteeredand was approved for pilot training.

Unfortunately for biographers,a fire at the U.S. National PersonnelRecords Center in Saint Louis, Mis-souri, in 1973 destroyed sixteen toeighteen million records, includingmost World War I and World WarII aviation service files. As a result,Vytautas’s military service recordswere lost to history. Two surviving

National Archives index cards, how-ever, document that Vytautas A.Graiunas (last name misspelled),served as a Lieutenant with the 9thAero Squadron of the U.S. ArmyAviation Service during World WarI. From these scant cards and theU.S. Army’s military unit histories,we can present the history of dis-tinguished service by Graičiūnas andhis fellow flyers who served with the9th Aero Squadron.

After his induction into the U.S.Army in Chicago, Graičiūnas wasassigned to Company E of the Pro-visional Aviation School Squadronat Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.On May 30, 1917, while receivingbasic pilot training at Kelly Field,the members of Company E, wereseparated as a unit to receive spe-cialized bombardier training. OnJune 14, Company E was officiallydesignated the U.S. Army 9th Bom-

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The Brequet 14 B2 bomber; a plane used by the 9th Aero Squadron

bardment Squadron, and upon com-pletion of the training, each flyerwas commissioned a 2nd Lieutenantin the U.S. Army. On July 5, thesenew officers were sent to SelfridgeField in Mount Clemens, Michigan,where they underwent special train-ing in radio communication, and aer-ial bombing and photography. Here,Lieutenant Graičiūnas earned theaviator ratings that qualified him towear the coveted pilot wings on hisuniform.

On October 27, 1917, the 9thBombardment Squadron was or-dered to Mineola Field on Long Is-land, New York, and on November27, sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia,to Liverpool, England. Arriving onDecember 7, the squad was assignedto the British Royal Flying Corps,Romsey Rest Camp, where they un-derwent another six months ofcombat training. They became thefirst American squadron to fightalongside a British unit. On August7, 1918, Lieutenant Graičiūnas andthe other aviators of the 9th AeroSquadron travelled to Southampton,where they boarded a ferry to crossthe English Channel to Le Havre,France. They then used overlandtransportation to reach the SaintMaixent Aerodrome, the primaryFrench reception center for Ameri-can Expeditionary Forces. The unitwas assigned to the Colombey-les-Belles Aerodrome, where they were

equipped with French Breguet 14A2reconnaissance aircraft and becamethe first American squadron to flynight reconnaissance.

During the early years of WorldWar I, both the Germans and Allieshad learned to conduct troop move-ments at night to conceal their oper-ations. The Breguet was equippedwith a camera for recording andsometimes a radio for real-time re-porting of enemy troop movements.The two-man Breguet crew com-prised a pilot and an observer; thelatter’s duties included tail gunner andbombardier, if necessary. The 9thAero Squadron became part of the1st Army Observation Group, AirService, assigned to the Headquartersof the Night Reconnaissance Bomb-

ing Group at the Amanty Airdromein the Toul Sector, where it began tofly combat missions.

The 9th Aero Squadron beganits first night patrols from the Vavin-court Aerodrome at Amanty on Sep-tember 14, 1918, and flew regularmissions over enemy territory. Lieu-tenant Graičiūnas was one of thebrave young men who nightly riskedtheir lives flying into combat for theircountry. Over the next three monthsof 1918, the 9th Aero Squadron tookpart in many famous World War Ibattles. They earned combat stream-ers for participation in the Battle ofLorraine–Tour Sector, August 30 toSeptember 11; the Battle of Saint Mi-hiel–Offensive Campaign, September12 to 16; and the Battle of Meuse-

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Emblem of the 9th Aero Squadron

Une Baye, actress and wife to Vytautas

Argonne–Offensive Campaign, Sep-tember 26 to November 11.

Owing to the bravery and dedi-cation of these flyers, a great dealwas learned about night reconnais-sance that is still useful. One of theunits notable innovations was paint-ing the underside of their aircraftblack to conceal the planes from en-emy searchlights and antiaircraftguns. During the war, it became cus-tomary for aviation units to adoptan insignia, which was frequentlypainted on aircraft and worn on uni-forms as a distinctive patch. The in-signia of the 9th Aero Squadron fea-tured a double-winged aircraft flyingsolo through enemy searchlightbeams that form the Roman nu-meral IX. Although most Americanunits were sent home shortly afterthe November 11, 1918 armistice,the 9th Aero Squadron was assignedto the U.S. Third Army Air Service,VII Corps Observation Group, andsent to the German Coblenz Air-drome at Fort Kaiser Alexander,where it was part of the Allies’Rhineland occupation force. There,the unit served as a courier squadronto Third Army Headquarters andalso flight-tested surrendered Ger-man aircraft. The unit was subse-quently assigned to the VII CorpsObservation Group at the TrierAerodrome in Germany and the 1stAir Depot at Colombey-les-BellesAerodrome in France. Upon finallyreceiving their orders to go home,the squadron was assigned to Mar-seilles, where they remained fromMay 25 to June 7, 1919, when theyembarked on a ship to the UnitedStates. Upon arriving home, mostpersonnel were demobilized atMitchell Field, New York and, withthe thanks of a grateful nation, re-turned to civilian pursuits.

Once back home, Graičiūnas re-newed his studies at the Illinois In-stitute of Technology, where heearned his Bachelor’s degree in 1923.

For the next three years, he workedas a management consultant inChicago, Milwaukee, and New York.Although the young graduate wasfilled with a passion for his work,he also found time to fall in lovewith and marry his cousin UnėBabickaitė, who had grown up withhim in his father’s house. In 1927,Vytautas abandoned a promising en-gineering and management career inAmerica to move to Lithuania.

Graičiūnas quickly obtained em-ployment in Lithuania and for thenext several years managed a num-ber of factories in Kaunas. As his

skills became known and becausethe industrial capacity in Lithuaniaat the time was very limited, he be-gan to travel as an international man-agement consultant. AlthoughLithuania remained his home, hepracticed in Germany, Switzerland,France, Holland, Spain, and Eng-land, and served the Lithuanian gov-ernment as a consultant to the Min-istry of Defense. He was also afrequent lecturer at Vytautas MagnusUniversity. For his service to the Re-public of Lithuania, Graičiūnas wasawarded the Commander’s Cross ofthe Order of Grand Duke Gedimi-nas. He founded an organization ofmanagement consultants in Lithua-nia and became its first president.

Although Vytautas and Unėsurely saw the storm of war spread-ing across Europe during the earlydays of World War II, they chose toremain in Lithuania and survived the

Soviet and Nazi occupations. Duringthe initial 1940–41 Russian occupa-tion, he worked for the Soviet gov-ernment as a consultant to the Peo-ple’s Commissariat and during theNazi 1941–44 occupation served asa Management Advisor to the Ger-man Agriculture Business Direc-torate-General. As an American cit-izen, Vytautas could have returnedto the U.S. at the end of World WarII, but remained in Soviet-occupiedLithuania, because his wife, Unė, aLithuanian citizen, would not be al-lowed by the U.S. to join him. Dur-ing the second Russian occupation,he taught as an Associate Professorof Civil Engineering at VytautasMagnus University from 1945 to1948 then worked as a managementconsultant for the “Kotton” and“Silva” stocking factories in Kaunasfrom 1948 to 1951.

Although Graičiūnas was notimmediately targeted by the Russianauthorities, the situation changed asthe Cold War intensified. On thenight of April 18, 1951, Soviet secretpolice raided the Graičiūnas apart-ment in Kaunas, and Vytautas andUnė were arrested for alleged espi-onage and anti-Soviet activities. Theywere summarily tried and sentencedto ten years in the Siberian Gulag.On January 9, 1952, Vytautas diedunder mysterious circumstances inthe Olzheras (now Mezh-durechensk) camp in KemerovoOblast, Siberia. After Stalin’s deathin 1953, Unė was allowed to returnto Kaunas, where she lived out therest of her life.

To this day, in management text-books worldwide, Graičiūnas’s equa-tion and other principles of man-agement organization developed byhim are widely cited, discussed, andanalyzed. In Kaunas and Vilnius, thenames of the campuses of the Vy-tautas Graičiūnas School of Man-agement (www.avm.lt) pay tribute tohis intellectual accomplishments.

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The logo of the Graičiūnas School

of Management in Lithuania