John Thomas Mullen was born on April 20, 1915, in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He served in HQ/1, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, as a Private, during World War II. He was Killed in action on September 20, 1944, during Operation Market Garden while participating in the Waal River crossing, the heroic crossing that liberated Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He was one of the 49 paratroopers killed during the assault on German positions on the opposite bank. Pvt Mullen is now buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.