Jesse W Gonnam enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and graduated as a fighter pilot.

In October of 1942 he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant at Foster Field in Victoria, TX. While there he married Gwendolyn Walker, a fellow graduate from Mazon Township High School.
On a mission 23 April 1944 his aircraft was shot down and he was taken POW

He was stationed in England with the 352nd Fighter Squadron of the 353rd Fighter Group, and flew P-47s over the European Continent. On 7 January 1944, he shot down three Fw190s. For a description of this mission see: https://353rdfightergroup.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/mission63-january-7-…

On 23 April 1944 he was shot down in P-47 #42-76394 over Achmer, Germany. He was taken as a Prisoner of War and held in Stalag Luft III.

His nephew remembers:
'Jesse was like a lot of his generation; he did not talk about his war experiences very much. My father and he farmed together in Grundy County Illinois and I worked with him a lot without him ever telling me much about what he experienced.'

'It appears that during the war he was considered an Ace and was listed as one in a number of press releases. According to a librarian at the 8th AF Museum in Pooler, Ga after the war the USAF changed a number of records so that all pilots and groups were credited in the same way. Probable’s and shared kills were no longer accepted.'

'It was unfortunate he was shot down so early as he was one of the more accomplished pilots in the early part of the war. This was about the time the mission for the P-47 groups was changed from bomber escort to air-to-ground assault. He was shot down strafing a canal and airfield near Achmer. The change in mission did not do him much good.'