HOOD, JOSEPH N. JR.

Description

Joseph Nelson Hood was born on January 9, 1916, in Quebec, Canada, to Anastasia Naomi Farley, age 29, and Joseph Nelson Hood, age 37. He married Marjorie Helen Butler in Brooklyn, New York, on June 26, 1937, when he was 21 years old. They lived in Queens, N. Y. where he was employed as a purchasing agent in the hospital insurance industry. He had completed 2 years of college.

Joseph Nelson Hood served in the military on February 26, 1937, in New York when he was 21 years old.
He served in Company H 107th Infantry, National Guard, until 3yrs later honorably discharged on 25 Feb 1940. Joseph Re-Enlisted on 10 Feb 1941 and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.

Second Lieutenant Joseph N. Hood, Jr. U. S. Army Air Corps – 7th Air Force, 41st Bomber Group, Medium, 48th Bomber Squadron

On February 10, 1941, he enlisted in the U. S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, having the rank of Sergeant which he had obtained during his service in the National Guard. Later on Joseph N. Hood was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 48th Bomber Squadron, 41st Bomber Group. Joseph was a pilot of a B-25 Michell medium bomber.

The 41st Bombardment Group was a B-25 bomber unit in the Seventh Air Force that took part in the fighting in the Marshall Islands, Tinian and Guam in 1943-44 and the air campaign over Japan in 1945.

The group was activated in January 1941 and trained with the B-18 and A-29. It converted to the B-25 in 1942 and used that aircraft to fly patrols off the US west coast in 1942-43. The group was allocated to the forces being gathered for the invasion of Tarawa Operation Galvanic , and in October 1943 it moved to Hawaii to join the Seventh Air Force.

In the event the group wasnt involved in the fighting on Tarawa, but it was one of the first AAF groups to move onto the newly conquered island. Two of its squadrons moved to Tarawa on 15 December, although their airfield wasnt really ready for another week.

Between 28 December 1943 and 12 February 1944 the group concentrated on low level attacks on Maloelap and Wotje, with Mille and Jaluit as secondary targets all four are islands in the Marshalls . The low level strafing and bombing were effective but costly and the group lost seventeen aircraft during that period.

On 19 February the group switched to medium altitude attacks, and the losses dropped. Losses also dropped after the groups
47th Bombardment Squadron took part in a very effective attack on Maloelap that ended the threat from Japanese fighter aircraft.

Second Lieutenant Joseph N. Hood and his crew were listed Missing in Action Wotje Atoll, Marshall Islands January 27, 1944, two weeks before the medium altitude attack strategy was implemented.

COMMENDATIONS

Γÿà World War II Victory Medal
Γÿà Purple Heart
Γÿà American Campaign Medal
Γÿà Army Presidential Unit Citation
Γÿà Army Good Conduct Medal

He was declared pre-sumed dead on January 17, 1946 and is honored at the Honolulu Memorial Cemetery. J. Nelson Hood was survied by his wife and one son Joseph Nelson Hood III, who was born in June 1944, six months after his father went missing.

Actual footage of 41st Bomb group making low level attack runs.

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