2LT John W. Dewey

US Army Air Forces

351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force

Service # O-809376

John Watson Dewey was born on 19 November 1919 in the community of Peckville in Blakely, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania to Richard L. and Anna J. Dewey. His mother emigrated from England to the United States in 1881 and became a naturalized American citizen. Hi father was a native of the Keystone State. Dewey was the youngest of the Protestant couple’s five sons: Henry, Richard Jr, Donald, and Thomas. Dewey’s father financially supported the family as an engineer and, later, as a life insurance sales agent. His mother was a homemaker.

Dewey’s entire upbringing occurred in Peckville, PA. His family worshipped at the Peckville Presbyterian Church. Dewey graduated from Blakely High School and graduated from Scranton Keystone Junior College. He registered for the draft in Archbald, PA on 1 July 1941 while employed as an assistant manager by the F.W. Woolworth Company with responsibilities at the PA stores in Mahanoy City, Phoenixville, and Lebanon. He also worked in sales for the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. Dewey stood 5’ 9” tall, weighed 162 pounds, and was unmarried.

Dewey enlisted in the Army Air Forces on 5 February 1942 at Olmsted Field, Middletown, PA where he briefly was a storekeeper. The single aviation cadet received basic training at the Army Air Force Pre-Flight School at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Dewey completed primary training at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida and attended Army Air Forces Basic Flying School at Bainbridge Army Air Field, Georgia. He received his officer commission and deployed on 8 December 1943 to the European Theater of Operations.

Dewey was assigned to the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force as a qualified navigator for the unit’s B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. Dewey and his group settled into RAF Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk, England where their combat missions would originate. He was assigned to crew B-17 Flying Fortress #42-38011 “Kind’a Ruff” on 17 Feb 1944 which was piloted by 1LT Edward Handorf. On 6 March 1944, “Kind’a Ruff” took off from Thorpe Abbotts on a bombing mission to Berlin, Germany with Dewey as navigator. While returning from the combat mission, the B-17 was attacked by a Messerschmitt ME-109 with 20 mm fire hitting the wing tanks. The heavy bomber exploded and crashed at Jardinghausen, east of Bassum.

Dewey was killed in action on 6 March 1944 when his B-17 exploded and crashed in Jardinghausen, Germany from 20 mm fire by an ME-109 fighter plane.

Eight “Kind’a Ruff” crew members, including Dewey, perished. Two of the bomber’s crew survived and became Prisoners of War. The World War II Dead Program repatriated Dewey’s remains to the United States from Neuville-en-Condroz, Liege, Belgium. Dewey was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 4 May 1950. Dewey posthumously received the Purple Heart.

Sources

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49228438/john-w-dewey

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/88578932:6061

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/51900649:6224

https://100thbg.com/index.php?option=com_bombgrp&view=personnel&Itemid=334&id=1282

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/person/john-w-dewey

The Times-Tribune (PA) 27 March 1944, 12 Mar 1945

The Tribune (PA) 5 December 1942

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars

project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of

volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on

Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? These stories

will be accessible via smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery. If you

noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to

contribute to it, please contact me at moyer1020@comcast.net.

SBTSProject/[Pennsylvania]/[Lackawanna)]