WW2 Fallen - C-47 navigator John Hill

Lt. John Hill was a C-47 navigator in the 436th Troop Carrier Group.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71558688/john-t-hill
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/383 

John Thomas Hill never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

John was born on May 6, 1920 in New York. His parents Dudley and Sara were born in Pennsylvania and Kansas, respectively. His father worked as a rubber works assistant manager and later as a salesman for a rubber plant. John had one older sister and younger brother. By 1940 John had finished two years of college.

He enlisted in the Army Air Forces and became a navigator in November 1943. He was assigned to the 80th Squadron, 436th Troop Carrier Group where he held the rank of first lieutenant. This unit participated in the D-Day attack by transporting troops from the 101st Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division to Normandy, plus dropped supplies over the following days. It also participated in airdrops in the invasion of Southern France and also Operation Market Garden.

Lt. Hill was part of a four plane C-47 formation that took off from Villeneuve-Vertus, France at 1640 hours for a flight back to their base in England on November 26, 1944. The weather was poor and cloud cover was under 1,500 feet. The Skytrains dropped to 1,200 feet after crossing the English Channel. The lead plane made the unfortunate decision to drop another 200 feet and the first three planes crashed into Leith Hill. Nine men from these three planes were killed, including Lt. Hill. The cause was determined to be pilot error influenced by poor weather.

His grave is at Saint Agnes Cemetery in Avon, New York.

Thank you Lt. Hill for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for John.

Last year on this date I profiled multiple Bronze Star hero Armando Rainone, 305th Signal Battalion. You can read about Armando 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.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org