"I Loved to Fly"

By Tyler Francke, Veterans News Magazine

U.S. Army Air Corps Capt. John F. Ward proved his mettle on his very first mission during World War II.

He was stationed in the Pacific theater with the 11th Airborne Division and was flying missions into Atsugi, the home base of the 302nd Kokutai, one of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s most formidable fighter squadrons. Japanese aircraft based at Atsugi shot down more than 300 American bombers during the fire bombings of 1945.

If the young captain and pilot was intimidated, he certainly didn’t show it. On his first mission, he took a sign that said, “You are entering Tokyo through the courtesy of the 11th Airborne Division.”

Ward was born on Christmas Day, 1919, in Dowagiac, Mich. He met his wife, Winnifred “Winnie” Harrison when they were 13 years old. She, a native of South Bend, Ind., had been attending a weeklong Girl Scout outing at Indian Lake in Dowagiac.

The pair swapped letters from then on, always beginning with “Dear Friend” and closing with “Your Pal.” And two or three times a week, John, who was then in the sixth-grade, would hop in a car to go to see Winnie.

“You could drive a car in the sixth grade?” Veterans News Magazine asked.

John just shrugged. “I did,” he said, adding that he drove his dad’s old Ford — without permission.

“Don’t tell him,” he said. (We agreed not to.)

U.S. Army Air Corps Capt. John F. Ward flew daring missions to Antsugi and Okinawa during World War II. Even after the war ended, he couldn't stay out of the sky, working as a commercial pilot, a small plane salesman and a banking VP of aircraft finance.

He graduated from Dowagiak High School and went on to college at Albion, majoring in economics. He joined the Army after college, where he ultimately served in both major theaters.

John traveled the world, sometimes carrying cargo for the war effort to the European front, sometimes bringing injured soldiers back for treatment.

Oftentimes, the most precious cargo was the plane itself. He remembers shuttling an astonishing array of different aircraft from one base to another, wherever they were most needed.

“I guess, or I would have crashed,” John said with a laugh when asked if he knew how to fly them all.

On a return trip from an Air Force base, John took a detour to South Bend to see if his “pal” still lived there. Luckily, she did, and the two soon became good friends again. Within a very short time, John proposed marriage and Winnie accepted.

The wedding was originally set for Feb. 5, 1944, but that day, John was flying a B-24 Bomber to Montreal, Canada, and bad weather prevented him from making it to South Bend. The ceremony went off two days later, without a hitch.

The couple was stationed at many bases during John’s service, from Michigan to Maine. His final assignment was in Okinawa, Japan. He was discharged in December 1945.

After the war, he continued flying with Pan American-Grace Airways, stationed in Lima, Peru, and flying from Panama to Argentina — and all stops in between, including Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil.

“I would fly from the top of South America — to the western part — all the way to Buenos Aires,” he recalled.

A severe bout with amoebic dysentery and other bacteria eventually forced the family to return to the U.S. He worked briefly in sales for the U.S. Rubber Co., but was soon back in the sky, joining Cessna Aircraft Co. as a regional sales manager.

After five years with Cessna, he wanted to spend more time with family, so he joined the Michigan Bank of Detroit, where he became the head of the newly created “Aircraft Finance Division.”

But if that job description conjures images of a life spent sitting behind a desk and shuffling paperwork — think again. This is John Ward we’re talking about, after all.

“I had access to many airplanes that the Michigan Bank had picked up,” he said. “I would fly them out to people who bought them, all over the country.”

He eventually became vice president of the bank and spent 25 years there. He retired, and he and Winnie moved to Green Valley, Ariz., where they spent 10 “enjoyable years,” playing golf, bridge, enjoying the weather, volunteering to serve the less fortunate, and, of course, taking to the skies whenever the desire seized him.

Asked if he spent more time in life at the controls of a plane than the steering wheel of a car, he said there’s no doubt.

“I loved to fly,” he said.

In 1994, they moved to their “favorite city,” Roseburg, to be closer to their two daughters, Sally and Susan.

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 27