For an excellent and comprehensive profile of Lt. John Butler, see https://delawarewwiifallen.com/2021/05/14/2nd-lieutenant-john-m-butler/

The following profile was first published on June 23, 2018 as part of the WW2 Fallen 100 blog on the 100th anniversary of Lt. Butler's birth.

John Mitchell Butler was born on June 23, 1918 in Delaware. His parents Willis and Mary were born in Delaware and Maryland, respectively. His father worked as a farmer. John had one older brother and a younger adopted sister. John completed eight years of schooling. He married Margaret Donovan in 1937. They had one son. They divorced and John married Meredith Young in 1944.

He enlisted in the army on January 8, 1942. He had some prewar experience so he ended up being trained to fly gliders. He became a second lieutenant in the 38th Troop Carrier Squadron. While in England he was detached to fly CG-4A Waco gliders with the 434th Troop Carrier Group. This unit was assigned to land 101st Airborne glider troops on D-Day.

In the early hours of June 6, 1944 Lt. Butler was the co-pilot of a Waco glider carrying Brigadier General Don Pratt, the assistant division commander of the 101st Airborne Division. The glider successfully landed in its designated landing zone around 4 am. However, the brakes did not work as intended on the wet grass and the glider crashed into a tree-lined hedgerow. Lt. Butler was killed in the crash and General Pratt broke his neck from whiplash. Pratt was the highest ranking Allied officer killed on D-Day. The other two men on the glider survived.

A fictitious version of the crashed glider was featured in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

His grave is at Hollywood Cemetery in Harrington, Delaware.

Thank you John for your sacrifice.

Thanks to Lowell Silverman for helping me make corrections to my original story. It is well worth to read Lowell's much more complete account at https://delawarewwiifallen.com/2021/05/14/2nd-lieutenant-john-m-butler/.

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 here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

John M Butler