World War II Honoree

John James Wright

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Newburgh, New York

Honored By

Sam E. Pennartz

Enlisted as a Private in the Army Air Corps on 26 September 1942 at Utica, New York. Graduated from Bombardier and Navigation Schools, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces. Underwent B-29 aircraft transition and combat crew training at Walker Army Air Field near Victoria, Kansas. Deployed from Mather Field, California to the Central Pacific Theatre of Operations with stopovers at John Rodgers Field, Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. On 18 November 1944, reported to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 500th Bombardment Group (VH), 881st Bomb Squadron stationed at Isley Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands. On 19 February 1945, he flew as the Bombardier-Navigator aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Tail Code: Z-Square-12 (serial #42-24692). As part of a diversionary strike in support of the invasion of Iwo Jima, it was one of 150 aircraft launched in multi-group formations to bombard the Musashino Aircraft Works near Tokyo, Japan. During the bomb run between Mt. Fuji and the target, a twin-engine Kawasaki Ki-45 'Nick' fighter plane dove into his aircraft just behind the wings and forward of the aft bomb-bay, causing it to break apart. The aircraft was last sighted disappearing into the clouds below at a geographic location of 35+53N and 139+40E. He was killed when the aircraft crashed on Nishihara Village in Yamanashi Prefecture on the west side of Tokyo, Japan.