John Howard White (1916–1945)

John Howard White was an Army Air Corps pilot during World War II, flying a British Supermarine Spitfire made available to American pilots early in the war. He downed five German aircraft to earn flying ace status.

John Howard White was born on May 25, 1916, in Morrisville, Missouri, to J. Paul White and Minnie Pearl Maberry White. The family moved two years later to Arkansas, settling in Kensett (White County). White’s father operated a general store in Kensett and served on the Kensett School Board for many years. White’s mother was a homemaker and also helped her husband in the store.

White attended public schools in Kensett, playing on the basketball team in high school. He pursued higher education at Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University) in Jonesboro (Craighead County) and the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). He was employed as a teacher in White County and Laneburg (Nevada County) until he resigned to join the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in August 1941.

White completed his flight training at Luke Field and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in April 1942. Prior to leaving for England, where he would be stationed, White married Maude Shaver in Kensett.

During his sixteen-month overseas tour, he flew 135 combat missions. Operating out of England, White flew a British Spitfire Mk. V in support of Operation Jubilee, the Allied raid on Dieppe, France, on August 19, 1942. This was the 31^st Fighter Group’s first major engagement. White was credited with destroying one Focke-Wulf FW-190 and was noted for protecting commandos on the ground. On April 21, 1943, while on a solo patrol over the Bay of Tunis, he single-handedly attacked a formation of ten German aircraft that were about to ambush Allied planes, shooting down one FW-190 and scattering the rest. In May 1943, during a massive engagement in which his small group attacked forty German fighters, White shot down his fifth plane, confirming his status as a flying ace. He participated in the initial stages of the Sicilian campaign before completing his tour and returning to the United States in September 1943. He spent the rest of the war training pilots for combat.

The Whites had a daughter, Jill, who was born on August 16, 1944.

On October 5, 1945, White volunteered to fly four injured soldiers from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to Amarillo, Texas. Just after he landed his ambulance plane in Amarillo, another pilot landed his training plane on White’s plane, killing White and his co-pilot instantly. The four injured soldiers survived.

Nine of his former students flew P-47 Thunderbolts in a “Missing Man” formation over the Kensett Cemetery gravesite on the day of the funeral. His wife, Maude, who never remarried and died in 2004, is interred at the Kensett Cemetery alongside White, whose parents are also buried there.

Major John White was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and fourteen Air Medals for his military service. He was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987.

For additional information:
“Crash at Field Fatal to Two.” Amarillo Daily News, October 6, 1945, p. 1.

“John Howard White.” Hall of Valor. https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-390272/ (accessed July 13, 2026).

John Howard White. Arkansas Aviation Historical Society. https://arkavhs.com/index.php/hall-of-fame/maj-john-h-white/ (accessed July 13, 2026).

Richard Holbert
Little Rock, Arkansas