World War II Honoree

John George O'Neill

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Gasport, New York

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

At age 21, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as an Air Corps aviation cadet. On August 29, 1942 he was flown overseas to Australia. In New Guinea he was assigned to the 49th Fighter Group, 9th Fighter Squadron "The Flying Knights" and flew combat missions on a P-38 Lightning over New Britain against Rabaul. He was officially credited with eight aerial victories between March 4, 1943 to October 29, 1943. During a two week period between (October 15-29, 1943) he claimed six of his eight victories. On October 24, 1943 he became an "ace" with five aerial victory claims. All of his victory claims were against Japanese fighter aircraft in the air. In New Guinea, he earned the nickname "Jump" because he was expert in jumping the enemy shooting them down and avoiding their return fire. For his service, he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross with two clusters, Silver Star, Air Medal with oak leaf cluster, American Campaign Medal and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal.