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Mason John Mansfield

Name:
John Mansfield Mason
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
Unit:
91st Combat Cargo Squadron
Date of Death:
1945-08-15
State:
New Jersey
Cemetery:
National Memorial Cem. of the Pacific, Hawaii
Plot:
A
Row:
Grave:
79
Decoration:
Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Air Medal w/OLC
Comments:

John Mansfield Mason was born on July 5, 1921. He went through the entire Ridgewood school system. After graduating from the high school in 1939 he went to Cornell to study Chemical Engineering and again was active in track and football. He was a member of R.O.T.C. and Kappa Sigma Fraternity but didn't graduate because he joined the service Feb. 1, 1942 as an enlisted man.

He did his pre-flight training at Maxwell Field, Ala. in the summer of 1943, at Fletcher Field in Clarksdale, Miss. in the fall and in Greenville, Miss. in the winter. From February to May 1944 he was at George Field in Lawrenceville, Ill., getting his commission on March 12, 1944. For a time thereafter he was a flight leader and lead 65 cadets. He went to Malden Airfield in Malden, Mo. in March 1945 for transition school to learn how to fly the C-47 "Gooney Bird" and gliders. The C-47 Douglas transport was the military version of the DC-3 passenger plane.

Then he went overseas to Karachi, the city in which he was born when his father was working there for the Standard Oil Company. He proceeded to fly the perilous "Hump" in the China-Burma-India route. More than 400 supply planes crashed flying the Hump – either shot down by the enemy or forced down by bad weather.

John was killed when his C-46D landed short on an instrument flight plan, crashed and burned on return approach from Ledo to Myitkyina, transporting empty 55 gallon gas drums. He tried to let down below minimum altitude for instrument flight conditions, trying to fly contact and partial instruments. He lost radio contact and went down, tearing down communications lines, hitting railroad tracks, cartwheeling across rice fields and through bushes, about three miles from the airstrip. The crew of three perished. He is now buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA.

1Lt Mason was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com