Victor Ion Popa

He was born in Bârlad, the first of three children of Ion Popa and Aspasia, née Pavelescu.^[1] He went to primary school in Călmățui, a village in the Grivița commune, in the former Tutova County, where his father was a schoolteacher. At Iași he finished his first five years of secondary school at the Costache Negruzzi Boarding High School and his last two years of high school at the National High School, graduating in 1914. He enrolled in the Iași Conservatory and for a time in the law faculty of the University of Iași. In 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the side of the Allies, Popa interrupted his studies and attended an officers' school, graduating as sub-lieutenant. In 1917, he fought at the battles of Mărăști and Oituz, an experience he will write about in "Flower of steel, novel of war".^[1]