John H. Howard

James Howard was the only fighter pilot awarded the Medal of Honor in Europe during World War II. James born in China in 1913, he planned to follow his father’s footsteps as a physician. His parents were missionaries in Canton, and he spent his first 14 years in China. He studied at Pomona College in California, but left in 1937 to go to the US Navy's flying school in Pensacola, Florida. He became a flier with the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, who helped to defend China against the Japanese. Its pilots were chosen by Colonel Claire L. Chennault.

In 13 months of action over Burma and China, beginning in December 1941, he flew 56 missions and credited with shooting down 6 Japanese planes. When the Flying Tigers disbanded, he returned to the US and was sworn into the Army Air Forces in 1943. The Mustang P-51 was new then, and he took command of a squadron assigned to protect bomber groups during raids over Europe. At the end of the war, he was in charge of Pinelias Army Air Field in Florida.

After flying fighters from the USS Enterprise for 2 years, he responded to a recruiter for the American Volunteer Group (AVG). As resigning from the Navy 6 months before Pearl Harbor, he returned to China to fly combat with Claire Chennault’s famed Flying Tigers. In 7 months of flying P-40s against the Japanese, Howard achieved 6 1/3 of his victories and was also once shot down himself by ground fire.

He returned to the United States when the AVG merged with the USAAF in July 1942. Than later that year accepted his third commission. To this time he became a captain in the Army Air Force. By the fall of 1943, he was a squadron commander in England with the 354th Fighter Group, the first American unit to receive P-51 Mustangs. While escorting a bomber force near Berlin on 11 January 1944, Major Howard put on what witnesses called "the greatest display of combat flying" ever seen. Soon after he led his 50 fighters into the attack, he shot down a Me-110, but subsequently became separated from his group. Now alone, Howard was confronted by some 30 Luftwaffe fighters whose attacks were centered on the Flying Fortresses of the 401st Bombardment Group. Rather than waiting for help, he single-handedly took on the enemy force in a violent, exhausting, up and down battle that lasted for 30 minutes. He was credited with downing four enemy fighters, scoring one probable and damaging another. When his ammunition ran out, he continued to dive in feints at incoming fighters to break up their attacks, only turning for home when his fuel ran dangerously low. None of the B-17s were lost, and his own aircraft received only one hit during this epic battle, which won him the Medal of Honor.

He is survived by a step-daughter, Nancy Smith of Gainesville, Florida, and 2 sisters, Martha Johnson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Margaret Steele of Hightstown, New Jersey. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery (Section 34, Grave 2571) NC at 0830 hours, on Friday, 24 March 1995.