JOHN CUSHING WHITE
Captain John Cushing White was a C-47 pilot (aircraft #43-15865) and the senior flight leader for the 3rd Combat Cargo Squadron,
1st Combat Cargo Group based at Tulihal, India.
He was shot down by Japanese fighters on 8 November, 1944 in the Kabaw Valley near mile marker 65.2 on the Tamu-Kalewa Road.
Elements of the 25th Brigade of the King's African Rifles located the crash on 9 November, 1944 and buried Capt. White, his crew
(1st Lt. Melvin G. DeGarmo, T/Sgt. Patrick Joseph Flanagan and Cpl. Peter Willis Spangler, Jr.) and two unidentified Indian soldiers,
near the scene of the crash.
Three subsequent expeditions were unable to locate the crash site or the graves.
All are still listed as MIA.
One other note of interest is that then-Lt. White was a member of the Lost Squadron which put down on the polar ice cap in
Greenland on 15 July, 1942.
He was the co-pilot of the B-17 “Do-Do.”
He was a remarkable young man.
The local VFW post is named in his honor.
The local American Legion Post lies on land donated by Capt. White's father, who also assisted in the building of the American Legion Hall.
Capt. White's death was a great loss, and is the only loss in the CBI Theater from Charlton County.
1st Lt. John C. White - September 1942
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John with his father, M. G. White, in front of the family home in Folkston, Georgia.
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