Personal life....

Married 1st to Hazel Dale Lester Lane (she was 1st married to Louis Askew) After Hazel's death Joe married Loraine D Gaunty-Guess on 1 Oct 1972 in Houston Harris Co Texas and they ramianed married until his death. Loraine died in 23 May 2003 is buried in Rosewood Cemetery, Humble, Harris Co TX ID #7502025




Service during WWII

Joe was an engineer/gunner on a B-25 bomber in the CBI campaign part of the 22nd Bombardment Squadron (M), 341st Bombardment Group (M), of the 10th and 14th Air Forces, that served in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II.

In 1942 and 1943 this squadron flew B-25 Mitchell bombers in the 10th Air Force in India. In 1944 the squadron moved to Yangkai, China, to become a part of the 14th Air Force, the Flying Tigers, under command of General Claire Chennault. The squadron continued operations from Yangkai through the remainder of the war.

After the war, members formed the 22nd Bomb Squadron Association, to preserve the history, fellowship and tradition of their World War II experiences and to meet annually for social, business and educational purposes.

In 1938 the 22nd had been commissioned as a heavy bombardment squadron. By 1941 it was flying B-17's out of Australia and Java. In 1942 the ground echelon was reorganized in South Carolina as the 22nd Bombardment Squadron. The air echelon was known at that time only as Project #157. They were assigned B-25's and flew them to Karachi, India (present day Pakistan), where they carried out combat missions from India and China as a part of the China Air Task Force. The 22nd Bomb Squadron participated in a daring daylight raid on Hong Kong harbor on October 25, 1942, a strategic follow-up to Jimmy Doolittle's
famous raid on Japan just five months earlier.

Late in 1942 the 22nd Bombardment Squadron (M) came together as part of the 341st Bombardment Group (M) at Chakulia, India, about 100 miles west of Calcutta. Throughout 1943 the squadron attacked Japanese lines of supply and airfields in Burma, helping to keep open the only remaining Allied supply line from India, over the Himalaya Mountains (the Hump) to China.

From early 1944 until the end of the war the squadron operated out of Yangkai, near Kunming, Yunnan Province, in the southwesterly part of China. From that location, the squadron continued to protect the Hump air lift by giving air support to Allied land operations in northern Burma. In addition, the squadron conducted aerial attacks on enemy supply lines in French Indochina (now Vietnam) and throughout southeast China and the South China Sea.

Thank you for you service "Papa Joe"