Born Joseph Pilcher Baird to Dilworth and Georgia Elizabeth (Pilcher) Baird on 3 October 1919 in Tempe, Maricopa County, Arizona.

He graduated with the Class of 1937 from Tempe Union High School, and attended the Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe for three years; majoring in mathematics.

He received his private pilot's license under the first civilian pilot training program at Tempe, after which he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in the Army Air Corps on 29 June 1940.

Completed Elementary (Primary) flight training at Cal-Aero Training Corporation in Glendale, California; and Basic flight training at Randolph Field, Texas.

On 3 February 1941, he graduated with Class 40-C from the Kelly Field Advanced Flying School and was commissioned (ASN: O-403702) a Second Lieutenant in the USAAF.

Also completed Flying Instructors’ School at Randolph Field and was assigned to Moffett Field as a flight instructor. He married the former Miss Dorothy Lenora Gentry of Prescott, Arizona on 3 July 1941 at the First Congregational Church in Palo Alto, California.

B-17 Flying Fortress Squadron Commander while assigned to the 76th Flying Training Wing at Hendricks Army Air Field near Sebring, Florida.

Selected to command Aircrew A-SQ-2 (“Pacific Union”), he underwent B-29 aircraft transition and operational combat crew training at Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas.

In November 1944, he out-processed through Herington Field and deployed from Mather Field, California (with re-fueling stops at Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll) to the central pacific theatre of operations, and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bombardment Group (VH), 869th Bomb Squadron stationed at Isley Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

On 9 January 1945, he flew in the left seat as the Airplane Command Pilot aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress (serial #42-24772) tail code: A-Square-14.

It was one of 72 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard Target #357; the Musashino Engine Works of the Nakajima Aircraft Company near Tokyo, Japan. After a flight of approximately seven hours and some 1,200 nautical miles, his aircraft reached their check-point above Mount Fuji on the main island of Honshu, and began their bomb-run northeast towards the Tokyo area.

While over the target area at 30,000 feet, his aircraft was attacked by two Nakajima Ki-44 “Tojo” fighter planes from the 12 o’clock high position. His #1 engine was severely damaged by gunfire, setting the left wing on fire.

Last visual sighting was by his wingman at a geographic location of 35 degrees +30 minutes north and 138 degrees +50 minutes east, as it disappeared into cloud cover at 27,000 feet. He was killed when his aircraft crashed and burned in a field on the west side of Tokyo.

Joe P Baird