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| Lt. John Butler, shown here with 101st Airborne's General Pratt (second from left) was a Waco glider co-pilot on D-Day which crashed on landing. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11288820/john-mitchell-butler |
John Mitchell Butler never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He 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 one younger brother. John completed eight years of schooling. He married Margaret Donovan in 1937. They had one son.
He enlisted in the army on January 9, 1942. At some point he volunteered to learn how to fly gliders. He became a second lieutenant in the 38th Troop Carrier Squadron, which was equipped with CG-4A Waco gliders. His 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 by a tree limb that broke through his window and General Pratt broke his neck from whiplash. He was the highest ranking Allied officer killed on D-Day. The other two men on the glider survived with serious injuries.
His grave is at Hollywood Cemetery in Harrington, Delaware. I don't know what happened to his widow or son.
Last year on this date I profiled William Burks. You can read about William here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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