American War Hero · World War II · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the service and the writing, not an invented face.
John W. Joslin Jr.
April 14, 1921 – unaccounted for since May 21, 1943
Born Maricopa, Pinal County, Arizona
Loss location: North Sea north of Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands (loss location)
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces; bombardier, 324th Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy); B-17F Flying Fortress 41-24515 (Jersey Bounce / Marie Jane), Wilhelmshaven mission, May 21, 1943
Missing in action — DPAA lists 1st Lt. John W. Joslin Jr. as Unaccounted For (Non-recoverable), profile a0Jt0000000BSHKEA4 (verified 2026-09-25). Bombardier on B-17F 41-24515 lost May 21, 1943 on a Wilhelmshaven U-boat-yard mission; aircraft critically damaged by fighters and crashed in the North Sea; no bailouts observed; full ten-man crew lost. Memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten. Birth date and Arizona places from Fields of Honor case 584. Non-recoverable is an analytic category for a North Sea loss, not a recovered grave.
John Wallace Joslin Jr. was born in Maricopa, Arizona, on April 14, 1921, and grew up around Phoenix. He finished Phoenix High School, took some college, and volunteered for the Air Corps in January 1942. Victorville Army Flying School made him a bombardier and a second lieutenant that same year; by the spring of 1943 he wore first lieutenant's bars in the nose of a Fortress.
On May 21 he flew as bombardier on B-17F 41-24515 with the 324th Bombardment Squadron against Wilhelmshaven. Fighters hit the formation hard. The bomber went into the North Sea north of Schiermonnikoog. No chute was seen. Joslin did not return with any of the other nine.
DPAA profile a0Jt0000000BSHKEA4 still reads Unaccounted For, analytical category Non-recoverable. He is on the Walls of the Missing at Margraten beside his crew. Paperwork can close a file. It cannot invent a grave from that water.
- Publication
- NN-HERO-1941-020
- Content hash
- 2628c88f 0da21b47 282efb76 58beb1a8 226b72fd 1d444542 bfd73727 880c1fb5
- Base anchor
- 0x7c3c16 fd7b0fc9 4bf4dbbc 94c7228a d69161e0 d72750b8 439e713a 73c7ba29 c6
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