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| Lt. John Broderick, a West Point grad, served in the 1st Fighter Group in Italy, flying P-38 Lightnings. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/105918905/john-metcalf-broderick http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/226 |
John Metcalf Broderick never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 19, 1919 in North Dakota. His parents Leo and Genevieve were born in Minnesota and North Dakota, respectively. His father worked as a court reporter and later as a court stenographer. Still later he worked as a law clerk and a district judge. John had an older brother and sister and three younger sisters. By 1940 he was still living at home and had completed one year of college at the University of Minnesota.
John was able to transfer to the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1943. After first being assigned to the coast artillery, John was able to transfer to the Army Air Forces where he was trained to be a fighter pilot. He earned his wings in January 1944. He reached the rank of first lieutenant in the 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, which was equipped with P-38 Lightnings and was based in Italy. It conducted a lot of low level straffing missions to support the advance of the Allied army.
Lt. Broderick was killed in action on January 16, 1945 near Ancona, Italy. At the time, his brother William, who had been a bomber pilot in Europe, was a prisoner of war in Germany. William made it home safe after the war.
His grave is at Mandan Union Cemetery in Mandan, North Dakota.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 top turret gunner Oscar "Woody" Walrod. You can read about Oscar 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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