Name:
Jesse T. Mountjoy
Rank:
Second Lieutenant
Serial Number:
O-810339
Unit:
509th Fighter Squadron, 405th Fighter Group
Date of Death:
1944-07-31
State:
Kentucky
Cemetery:
Hillcrest Memorial Park, Lexington, Kentucky
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart
Comments:
2nd Lt Jesse T. Mountjoy, pilot of the P-47 Thunderbolt 42-75454, took off from A-8 Picauville on a combat air support mission near Granville. He was hit by flak. Mountjoy tried to land in a field but clipped a cherry tree with his left wing, then a steel pillar with his right before crashing into a wall. His body was ejected from the cockpit and buried by the villagers before the Germans could find it. It was sent back to the US in 1948. Corn now grows on his crash site, in homage to his Kentucky roots.