John A. Lofland
John Alfred Lofland of Westmont (Haddon Township), NJ.
Rank: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Serial Number: 0-492552
Unit: India-China Wing, Air Transport Command
Entered service from: Louisiana
Died:
Status: Missing in Action or Buried at Sea
Memorial: Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines
Awards: Air Medal
First Lieutenant John Alfred Lofland was born in 1912 in Brooklyn, NY, to John C. and Florence Ewald Lofland. His father worked as an engineer. By 1920, his family, which included a younger brother, Edward, had purchased a home at 235 Virginia Avenue in Westmont, NJ, with the proceeds from an inheritance of his mother.
Edward and John Lofland.
John Lofland went to grade and middle school in Westmont, and was a member of the 1930 graduating class of Collingswood High School. He transferred to Camden County Vocational School in Pennsauken, NJ, to take advantage of the chemistry class there, graduating in 1930. John Lofland then attended Drexel College in Philadelphia, PA. After graduation he pursued various interests, including a fling in the stock market, and interest in a radium mine in the Canadian northwest. He returned to college at Louisiana State University, where he met and married Halimah Hendry in 1938. The following year the young couple returned to the northeast to visit home and the 1939 World’s Fair and the Empire State Building in New York. He was working for the DuPont Corporation when he entered the Air Command as a civilian pilot in 1941, having received training through the Civil Aeronautical Training Program and through private lessons.
John Lofland was lost on June 14, 1944, while flying with the India-China Wing of the Air Transport Command. He was piloting a Consolidated Liberator C-87 Express cargo plane with a crew of four, on a flight from Tezpur, India, with a load of gasoline bound for Kunming, China, where he was to pick up passengers on the return flight. The C-87 was the cargo version of the B-24 Liberator bomber, notorious for problems with leaking fuel tanks, with midair fires an ever-present danger. The C-87 also had dangerous icing properties, which made it a very risky plane to fly over the Hump.
The plane departed at 1:40 AM local time. Witnesses saw a fireball in the sky, and he did not radio in from his first checkpoint, 30 minutes after takeoff. The plane has never been recovered. John Lofland and his crew are memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery at Manila, Philippines. He was awarded the Air Medal nine months after he went missing, and was declared dead in October of 1945.
Crew of the C-87 lost June 14, 1944:
Pilot: 1st Lt. John A. Lofland — 0-492552 — New Jersey
Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. Harry D. Clinton Jr. — 0-527077 — New York
Radio Operator: PFC Clyde L. Lowery — 35420671 — Ohio
Navigator: Staff Sergeant Joseph P. Quattrocchi — 15196766 — Ohio
John Lofland was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Lofland, of 235 Virginia Avenue, Westmont, NJ, his wife, Halimah, and a daughter, Jean Elizabeth.
Another member of his high school graduating class, Joseph Silverman, was killed in action while serving with the United States Marine Corps on Saipan in 1944.
John A. Lofland is memorialized on the War Memorial on Haddon Avenue in Westmont (Haddon Township), NJ.
John Alfred Lofland — Service Biography
Entered Service through Ferry Command, Army Air Corps, as a civilian pilot: Feb. 1942. Stationed at Hensley Field, Grand Prairie, Texas.
Commissioned a Second Lieutenant: Sept. 1942. Had received his Flight Training through the Civil Aeronautical Training Program while attending Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and privately.
While at Hensley Field, ferried various craft wherever moved in United States, Canada, and Canal Zone. While at Hensley Field, sent to Smyrna Air Base, Smyrna, Tennessee for training in four-engine craft.
Shortly afterward, All Army personnel transferred to Love Field, Dallas, Texas. While at Love Field, was ferrying both here and abroad; also had journeys to European Theatre during this time.
Transferred to St. Joseph, Missouri, for more extensive training in four-engine craft: Dec. 1942. Transferred to New Castle Army Air Base, New Castle, Delaware: April 1943. While at New Castle, ferried to European Theatres, and the Africa, India, Burma, and China Theaters. By this time, had been commissioned First Lieutenant.
Sent Overseas to Assam Province, India: December 1943. Ferried men and supplies over the Hump into China.
Went missing in flight over the Hump between his home base and Kunming, China: June 14, 1944. Awarded Air Medal nine months after missing.
Declared officially dead: October 2, 1945.
Honor Conferred on Lt. Lofland In New Castle Ceremony; Airman Vanished 9 Months Ago on India Flight
Two-year-old Jean Elizabeth Lofland is the thrilled possessor of an Air Medal ordered by President Roosevelt himself. And while she doesn’t realize it yet, it symbolizes the heroism of her father, who has been missing since June 14, when he was on a flight between India and China.
For Jean is the daughter of First Lt. John A. Lofland, son of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Lofland, 235 Virginia avenue, Westmont. The medal was awarded by Presidential order to Lieutenant Lofland, but in his absence, was presented to the child. Everyone concerned with the presentation felt she is merely holding it until the return of her father, but nine months is a long time to be missing.
It was a touching ceremony, before four companies of Airmen and WACS when Jean, in the arms of her mother, Halimah, received the medal at an informal retreat at the New Castle Army air base near Wilmington. Lt. Col. William H. Hooton, commanding officer of the Second Ferrying Group, made the presentation.
The citation accompanying the medal explained it was ordered by the President to Lieutenant Lofland:
“For meritorious achievement by participating as pilot from Feb. 4 to April 11, 1944, in more than 150 hours of operational flight in transport aircraft over the dangerous and difficult Assam-China air routes, where enemy interception and attack was probable and expected.
“Flying at night as well as by day, at high altitudes over impassable, mountainous terrain through areas characterized by extremely treacherous weather conditions including long periods of operation on instruments, often encountering severe icing conditions and mechanical difficulties requiring courageous and superior performance in the execution of duties to overcome, he accomplished his missions with distinction. His achievement in the face of the hazards and difficulties faced regularly and continuously during this hazardous duty, reflects much credit on himself and the Army Air Forces of the United States.”
Lieutenant Lofland, 32, graduated from Belmont grade school, Collingswood High and Drexel College. Later he attended Louisiana State university and was working for duPonts when he entered the Army Air Corps in 1941. A pilot in the Air Transport Command, he was stationed at Dallas, Tex., and New Castle before going overseas.
Family Photos
John and Edward Lofland, with cousin Ruth Miller.
Top: Howard Miller, “Cot” Lofland, and Ruth Ewald Lofland. Bottom: John Lofland, Edward Lofland, Ruth Miller.
C-87 Liberator Express
Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express, the aircraft type in which John Lofland disappeared on June 14, 1944.
Photos
The Lofland family home at 235 Virginia Avenue, Westmont (Haddon Township), NJ (July 2004).