World War II Honoree

Jesse E. Pettey, Jr.

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Nacogdoches, Texas

Honored By

Family and Friends

Relationship

Friend of Daughter

Entered basic training at Shepherd Field Wichita Falls Texas on 29 January 1943. Arrived at San Antonio Training Center for ground school and basic preflight training on 5 June 1943. On 1 September 1943 he was sent to Gardner Army Airfield west of San Antonio where he mastered the PT-19 basic trainer. On 5 November 1943 he arrived at Waco Basic Training Command in Waco Texas where he transitioned to the BT-13 trainer and then to the AT-17 Bobcat trainer and graduated on 12 March 1944 as a Second Lieutenant. After graduation he was assigned to a B-24 crew at Hammer Field in San Francisco as their Co-Pilot. The crew was then dispatched to Tonopah Nevada for further training and on 14 July 1944 they received a brand-new B-24, SN 42-51336, at Hamilton Field California and were sent to Europe making several stops along the way to Torrento Army Airfield near Cerignola Italy and joined up with the 461st Bomb Group, Heavy and assigned to the 766th Squadron, all part of the 49th Bomb Wing of the 15th Air Force. By 8 August he was flying the first of 28 missions over Italy, Hungary, Austria, France, Romania, Greece and Germany as co-pilot winning a Distinguished Flying Cross by helping the pilot avoid an exploding B-24 directly in front of them in a mission over Linz Austria. On 25 January 1945 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and became the Pilot in Command of a new crew where he finished his 35 missions gaining a total of 4 Air Medals in addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross. That enabled him to be transferred to the Military Air Transport service where he commanded a C-47 aircraft delivering goods and supplies all over Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. During that time, he was promoted to the rank of Captain. On the 28th of March 1946 Captain Pettey arrived at Camp Chaffee in Fort Smith Arkansas for out-processing and return to civilian life. His decorations in addition to the DFC and 4 AM were the Distinguished Unit Citation, the WWII Victory Medal, the American Defense Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and after the war the Army Occupation Medal.