[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 59 (Thursday, April 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





           TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN JOHN ``JACK'' FREDERICK WILSON

 Mr. ROMNEY. Mr. President, it is my honor to pay tribute to 
Captain John ``Jack'' Frederick Wilson, who celebrated his 100th 
birthday this past Tuesday, April 2.
  Born on April 2, 1919, and raised in Park City, UT, Jack is one of 
only a small handful of pilots trained at Brigham Young University. He 
joined the Army Air Corps on December 11, 1941, just 4 days after the 
Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
  After training in the B-24 Liberator bomber, he was made a pilot in 
the 90th Bombing Group in the Fifth Air Force of the Army Air Corps and 
was deployed to New Guinea. He and his crew were eventually assigned to 
reconnaissance missions in the North China Sea tracking the Japanese 
fleet, and his B-24 was stripped of all bombs, machineguns, and 
defensive measures to be replaced with extra fuel tanks. Jack said of 
that time, ``My career as a B-24 pilot basically consisted of long 
periods of boredom punctuated with moments of terror.''
  He was a member of the Jolly Rogers and has carried his membership 
card his entire life, which says, ``Having been assigned to the best 
damned heavy bomb group, and having paid his dues, Captain Jack F. 
Wilson is hereby considered a member in good standing of the Jolly 
Rogers.''
  As a typhoon threatened the island airstrip where he was stationed, 
locals from Okinawa showed him a cave that he and his B-24 crew 
sheltered in, saving their lives. Despite popular opinion at the time, 
Jack never demonized the Japanese people. He believed ``there are good 
people everywhere'' and taught his children and grandchildren the same.
  After the war, Jack used his flying skills to help locate wildfires 
and pioneered the ``interagency'' concept, establishing the National 
Interagency Fire Center in Boise, ID. The main headquarters building 
bears his name.
  In honor of a native Utahn and one of the last remaining B-24 pilots 
from World War II, the U.S. Congress extends warm greetings to Mr. 
Wilson on April 2, 2019, his 100th birthday. We commend him for his 
life of service and his valor in defense of his country.

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