Born John B. Schroeder circa 1919 in Fairmont Township, Fillmore County, Nebraska.

Enlisted (ASN: 17004350) as a Private in the Army Air Corps on 13 August 1940 at Fort Crook, Nebraska. Completed primary flight training and was commissioned (ASN: O-868135) a Second Lieutenant in the USAAF.

Per 22nd Air Base Headquarters, Special Orders #66, dated 6 March 1944, he graduated with Class #25-44 from Flight Engineer School (FES) at Lowry Field, Colorado and was attached to 17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing at Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico. Subsequently, he underwent B-29 aircraft operational combat crew training and was assigned to Aircrew A-46 at Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas.

In November 1944, he out-processed through Herington Field, Kansas and deployed from Mather Field, California (with re-fueling stops at Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands) to the central pacific theatre of operations, and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bombardment Group (VH), 871st Bomb Squadron stationed at Isley Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

On 9 January 1945, he flew as the Flight Engineer aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress nicknamed "Mis Behavin" (serial #42-24655) tail code: A-Square-46.

It was one of 72 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard Target #357; the Musashino Engine Works of the Nakajima Aircraft Company near Tokyo, Japan. After a flight of approximately seven hours and some 1,200 nautical miles, his aircraft reached their check-point above Mount Fuji on the main island of Honshu, and began their bomb-run northeast towards the Tokyo area.

After the bomb run, his #2 engine was struck by an out of control Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" fighter plane. His bomber was last sighted by B-29 A-Square-48, ten miles east of Choshi Point off mainland Japan at 20,000 feet and under attack from 15 enemy fighter planes.

He was killed when his aircraft crashed in the Katori District of Chiba Prefecture on the east side of Tokyo. The next day a B-17 "Dumbo" search plane was dispatched to the ocean area off Choshi Point, but no wreckage or survivors were ever found. He was initially listed as MIA and declared KIA one year later.

John B Schroeder