Jack M. Garrity was born in 1906 in Pennsylvania, the son of John J. Garrity who resided in Cleveland, Ohio. He resided in San Mateo County, California prior to the war. He enlisted in the Army on November 16, 1942 in San Francisco, California. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as a Recreation Attendant and also as Married. Jack served as a Technician Fifth Grade, Headquarters Troop, 11th Cavalry Group, Mechanized, U.S. Army during World War II.

On May 23, 1945, he was a passenger on Flight C-46D (4-77507) which was taking 41 American soldiers that were ill, injured, or repatriated prisoners of war to hospitals in the Paris, France area and was then eventually going to take them all back to the United States. This flight occurred after Germany's surrender on May 7, 1945. However this C-46, for unknown reasons, developed a fire in one of it's two engines and crashed near the village of Taillefontaine, near Paris. All men aboard were killed in the crash. T5 Garrity is now buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery, Saint-Avold, France.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov