2nd Lt Joseph E. Gordon joined the US Army from Brooklyn, NY. He took off in a P-51 Mustang from Ramitelli Italy, on an escort mission to bomb radar stations by Lattes, France on 12 August 1944. The mission was successful, but the fighters of his wing began drawing fire. Gordon was hit by flak, and crashed to his death. He was one of the Tuskegee airmen.
,Br> From the Car Website: 2d Lt Joseph Evans Gordon May 5, 1923 – August 12, 1944 Class: 44-B-SE Graduation Date: February 8, 1944 Graduation Rank: Second Lieutenant Unit: 332nd Fighter Group, 99th Fighter Squadron Service # O-821912 Very little has been recorded about 2nd Lt. Joseph E. Gordon’s military career. His father, Ernest Gordon, was born in 1886 in the British West Indies. He married Josephine Redman in 1922. Joseph was born in Montreal, Canada, his family later moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. Gordon graduated from flight training on Feb. 8, 1944, at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. He soon deployed to Italy with the 99th Fighter Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group. On Aug. 12, after escorting bombers to Toulon, France, to destroy radar stations, fighters from the 332nd Fighter Group began to draw ground fire. P-51 Mustangs flown by Gordon and 1st Lt. Langdon E. Johnson were hit by anti-aircraft fire; both pilots were killed. Gordon is buried at Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in France. According to a government database, he was awarded a Purple Heart.