John V. Rupnik was born on July 7, 1912 and was from Michigan. He served as the Crew Chief on a Douglas C-47 Skytrain “Gooney Bird” (42-100954) in the 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, 64th Troop Transport Group, 12th Air Force. During the night of February 22/23, 1945, the plane flying from the Rosignano-Airdrome (Livorno), Italy, with an international crew of five Americans and two British (Royal Army Service Corps 352 General Transport Company )were on a mission to resupply (known as Operation Peedunk) the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Operation Pee Dee mission led by Captain Lesley Vanoncini and the Partisan forces he supported. The mission of Operation Pee Dee was to cooperate with the British SOE to assist partisans in preventing passage of German troops retreating north through the Liguria region of Northern Italy. Sometime during the night of 22/23 February, after the air re-supply, the C-47 crashed on the slope of Monte Calenzone killing all seven crew members. (Per Missing Aircraft Report {MACR}12987). Crew Members Wallin; Poole and Faull are buried in the same grave at Jefferson National Barracks, Missouri (SECTION 79 SITE 319C)