Joseph J. Windishman was born in 1922 in Wisconsin. He served as Technical Sergeant and Flight Engineer on C-47A "Skytrain" #43-15698, 317th Troop Carrier Squadron, 2nd Air Commando Group during World War II.

He was killed when his transport collided with a mountaintop in Kuyung, Burma, December 5, 1944. All four Americans and 23 Chinese Army troops aboard perished. Army engineers were led to the crash scene by local tribal people on December 17, 1944.

The bodies of the crash victims were too badly burned and dismembered to make individual identification possible. The Burma Road Engineers buried the American flyers near the crash scene and placed small wooden crosses on the grave and a gun salute with a volley of six shots was conducted. There was no method available to identify any of the Chinese troops. It was not possible at the time to remove the bodies of the American flyers from off the mountaintop. Recovery was later made and the airmen were re-interred in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA on November 19, 1947.

Tsgt Windishman was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com