John David "Jack" Dangerfield was born on October 25, 1918 in Utah. His parents John and Jessie were also both born in Utah. His father worked as a metal worker and died in 1924. John had two brothers. He completed four years of high school and married English born Florence Smith on April 20, 1942. He worked as a chemical analyst.

He was drafted into the army on May 5, 1943. He volunteered for the Army Air Forces and became a corporal in the 45th Bombardment Squadron, 40th Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force, which was equipped with B-29 Superfortresses. He was sent to the Pacific Theater on July 27, 1945. By that point the 45th BS was operating from Tinian. The unit flew low level flights where it dropped incendiary bombs during night raids over Japanese urban areas and dropped mines in Japanese shipping lanes. It flew it's last bombing mission on August 10, 1945. This was after the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki the previous day, but the Japanese had not yet taken step to communicate their decision to stop fighting.

On August 30, 1945 Corporal Dangerfield volunteered to fly in the B-29 The Flying Fort, with a mission to drop much needed supplies for American POWs near Yawata, Japan. Approaching Japan from the Bungo Channel in heavy fog and rain, Cpl. Dangerfield's plane was coming in too low and clipped the top of a ridge near Mt. Sobo. The plane crashed and burst into flames. All eleven crewmen perished.

His grave is at the Salt Lake City Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. His widow never remarried and died in 2011.

Thank you Corporal Dangerfield for your sacrifice.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

John D Dangerfield