John’s military career took him from horse-drawn field artillery to command of a missile squadron. During his service of 30 years, he commanded seven units. After transferring to the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, he flew as a bombardier on B-17s. When he completed his required 25 missions, he was reassigned as a staff officer to help plan missions at senior headquarters: ‘Having flown all those missions and having got regularly shot at made me more particular about such factors as avoiding flak. As a planner, I understood the importance of being precise in mission details – and my experience helped me develop plans that would get the job done – but minimized the threats that I understood very well.’



John retired as a Colonel in 1970, after 30 years of service. He served in the Second World War and with the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command in support of the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold Wars.



He and his wife Jean, who was born in Bury St Edmunds, England and served as a wren, live in Bellevue, Nebraska. They have six children.



John was born in Selma Alabama one of six children, their father a city official and his mother dying when he was thirteen years old. He went to college at Auburn Alabama where he was commissioned into the ROTC as an artilleryman. He officially joined the regular army in July 1940, going first to Fort Benning in Georgia. After several other postings he arrived at Fort Sill, Oklahoma from where he apparently chose to transfer to the Air Force.



He was assigned as a bombardier to the 94th BG and with them when they sailed for England in April 1943. The 94th was to finally settle at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk but John was not with them for long, transferring first to 4th Combat Wing under Colonel Frederick Castle and then, early in 1944 promoted Major and posted to 3rd Air Division HQ at Elveden Hall. His job to assist in planning - particularly the D-Day operations - and to check on the bombardier training in all 14 Bomber Groups in the Division. During daylight hours he was visiting airfields, at night planning in the War Room, which generally added up to a twenty hour working day. He caught up on sleep whilst being driven on his rounds. At Elveden for about a year his Commanding Officer was General Curtis LeMay 'a great leader, a very tough taskmaster but so knowledgeable you wouldn't believe'.



John says that in his 30 year army career he did just about everything; however there are no further details about his wartime role. He first saw his future wife Jean when she was a 17 year-old art school student helping out once a week at a Red Cross coffee and doughnut van and they kept in touch when she went on to join the WRNS. She was to work on the Enigma transcripts at Eastcote - something she did not reveal, even to her husband, for thirty years. When John returned to the USA he had great difficulty getting permission for Jean to leave the service and join him in the States. He went straight to the top - first to Lord Halifax (British Ambassador) and then to Winston Churchill - and was eventually given leave to return to England and marry.



They went on to have five sons and one daughter. John 'had every job you could think of' including four years as Base Commander at USAF HQ High Wycombe, a period as head of a Missile Unit at Vandenburgh and a posting to Guam.