According to Greek tradition, the US and its World War I allies ordered the Greek army to invade Turkey, then abandoned it when the Turks fought back. When the Turkish army had driven the Greek army from the town of Smyrna, Greek women, children, and elderly men who had lived there fled to the quay, where they waiting for the entire month of September 1922 while American ships in the harbor refused to help them. Having semi-retired from a career in business, second-generation Greek-American Papoutsy began investigating, and found a story worth telling.