John entered the service in the Army Air Force and was trained as a cargo pilot. His orders sent him to Myitkyina, Burma, where he arrived in January of 1945. There, as part of the 1348^th Airbase Group, he flew between forty and fifty missions over the Burma Hump. He ferried gasoline, bombs, Chinese and American troops, and even horses and mules. John returned to the states as a first lieutenant in December of 1945. He stayed in the Air Force and saw service in the Korean War. After World War II John re-enlisted for another eighteen months. After his discharge he worked for an oil company while entering the reserves. When the Korean War began, he was called up in 1951 as a B-29 pilot. Join often served as courier for nuclear centers, which were housed in cylinders about eight to ten inches in diameter and two feet long. After the Korean conflict he returned to the reserves, ran a dairy, and worked at R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. in Longview, Texas. He was flying C-124s in the reserves when he was called to active duty during the Berlin Crisis in 1962. In the Vietnam War he served in ninety-day active duty segments. Among other missions, he hauled supplies to Vietnam, as well as to island bases in the Pacific. He retired as a major in 1970 after twenty-seven years in active and reserve duty.