Davis was of mixed-race heritage, descended from the first African American family to setting in Benzie county, where he was born in 1912.  Davis had light skin, which enabled him to identify as white when he enlisted into the US Army Air Forces in May 1941, he was therefore considered eligible for combat, despite his Black ancestry. 

After training as a waist gunner  Davis was assigned to the 40th Bomb Squadron,  90th Bomb Group, where he complete a 50 combat mission tour in the  Asia/Pacific theatre of operations. Davis being wounded on both his first and last missions.

Davis' length of service made him eligible for a non-operational posting, but his instead chose to do an additional tour in the European theatre of operations. He was assigned to the 570th Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group and completed 12 combat missions

Davis was killed in  B-17 42-97407 'Asterisk' on 30 November 1944 on a mission over Merseberg  during amid air collision with B-17 44-8080

Awards: DFC (2OLC), AM (OLC), PH (OLC), Good Conduct, American campaign , WWII Victory, EAME and AP theatre ribbons. Recommended for SS and MOH.

* - Cologne 15-Oct-44, Cologne 16-Oct-44, Kassel, Hamm, Weisbaden, Langerwehe, Saarbrucken, Geisen, Merseburg [Recalled], Saarbrucken, Mannheim, Merseburg 30-Nov-44.

(The above being all the more remarkable as he was of African/American lineage, seemingly his light skin colour meant he was never asked his race and even fellow squadron/crewmates had no idea of his families origins. At this time in the war, he would not have made aircrew if his background had been known by the authorities.)