To the family, he was known as "Doeny." To friends he was known as Johnny.

He volunteered for the Army Air Force during WWII. During pilot's training, he was injured when his training aircraft crashed avoiding a collision with another aircraft that was in a take-off roll on the same runway Justin was landing on. He was subsequently sent to Navigator/Radar Operator training and was assigned to a crew of a P-61 Blackwidow Nightfighter Squandron in the Pacific theater. He told me he flew night missions and described what it was like when his aircraft came under enemy antiaircraft fire at night.

Following the war, he remained in the USAAF and transitioned to the U.S. Air Force when it was formed. During the early to mid-1950s he may have been assigned to a SAC base in Mississippi; because he told a story of being flown to a base in Nebraska to report to General Curtis Lemay, the then commander of SAC.

Despite what looked like a promising future in the USAF, Justin eventually chose to resign his USAF commission and enter civilian life sometime in the 1950s.

Because his service records were destroyed in the massive fire at the Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO in the early 1970s, all that remains of his military record are his USAF uniform, a box of insignia and ribbons, and a few pictures.

Like many war veterans, my uncle didn't talk much about the war. So, his family would love to find any details about his military service in the Pacific and beyond.

Colonel Steve

zzbaluba@gmail.com

Justin J Liston