John Warner White

John Warner White (1921–2010) was an American Army Air Corps Major who completed fifty bombing missions in 1943 in the Allies' Tunisian, Sicilian, and Italian Campaigns of World War II. As a first lieutenant in the 487th Bombardment Squadron, he flew many raids as lead bombardier facing enemy fighter aircraft and concentrated anti-aircraft fire which caused frequent casualties. Decades after the war's end, White published a personal narrative about his wartime experiences entitled "Tuff Stuffː Memoirs of John Warner White". The title Tuff Stuff refers to the name given to the B–25 bomber flown by White's six-man crew. The information below draws heavily on White's account of what he experienced from 1941 to 1944. Early life White was born into a prosperous and well-connected family in Nashville, Tennessee, where a major public park is named for his grandfather Percy Warner. His uncle, Luke Lea, was a US Senator from Tennessee. His great grandfather, James Cartwright Warner, was the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1861 but moved to Nashville when the Civil War broke out. White was born at a large quarried-stone house built by his grandparents, Margaret and Percy Warner, called "Royal Oaks", a 32 acre (13 ha) estate off Nashville's West End Avenue. The estate, in White's words, "had a house full of servants". He was driven to primary school by the family chauffeur. He attended Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy, then St. John's Military Academy in Wisconsin. At age 19, while he was a student at the University of North Carolina, World War II was raging in Europe. White and his Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers spent much of their time gathered by the radio at the fraternity house closely following the early stages of the war, particularly the Battle of Britain. White became dedicated to defending England in any way possible. He was well aware of the inevitability of the US becoming involved in the war and became interested in the Army Air Corps. At age 20, he was the first person to enlist at an Army Air Corps recruiting station on July 10, 1941, in downtown Nashville . A news photographer snapped a picture of White being interviewed by the recruiting officer, published in the Tennessean the following day. White was initially rejected for service for being underweight. His height was and he weighed only . He had to re-apply and was accepted after gaining .