Page 18 - Gold Star Sons of Georgetown Prep

Captain Joseph Egan with his P47 fighter.
COURTESY, TOGETHERWESERVED
1942, Joe was a 2nd lieutenant and a pilot in the 56th Fighter Group stationed for training in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There, he met, and later wed Bernice Coleman on October 31, 1942.
Four months later, in February 1943, Joe was posted with the 56th Fighter Group of the 8th Air Force to Britain and assigned to fly P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers of the 63rd Squadron. Standing 6’4” tall, Joe was outsized for a fighter pilot. Indeed, he was one of the tallest such pilots in the U. S. armed forces.
The 56th Fighter Group that Egan joined would become a storied unit within the 8th Air Force, earning the sobriquet of “The Wolfpack.” And Egan played a major role in helping to fashion that reputation. The 56th flew numerous missions over France, the Low Countries, and Germany prior to and after the D-Day invasion. These missions involved escorting bombers, bombing enemy airfields and supply depots, strafing troops, and tactically supporting Allied ground troops in combat. The 56th produced more “ace pilots” and destroyed more enemy planes in aerial combat than any other unit of the 8th Air Force.
On August 19, 1943, Egan shot down his first enemy aircraft, a German Focke-Wulf 190, and he was on his way to earning “ace” status. He reached that standing on March 15, 1944, when he shot down his 5th enemy aircraft. Back at Prep, students, who were apprised of the exploits of Prep alumni, cheered the news of Joe’s heroics. The new “ace,”
however, had some harrowing close calls, including a crash landing near the town of Claxton on the Sea in Essex, England, when he ran short of gas returning from a support mission escorting bombers to Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
By July 1944, Joe’s leadership, courage, and skill had earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters — meaning that he had been awarded the medal three times. The medal recognized any officer or enlisted man who distinguished himself “in support of operations by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.”
Returning on July 17, 1944 from leave after his first
tour of duty, Joe was promoted to captain and commander of the 63rd. Then, his good fortune ran out. On July 19, 1944, just two days after his promotions, and as Allied air activity continued at a frenetic pace in support of the upcoming Allied breakout at St. Lô, Joe’s P-47 Thunderbolt was brought down by flak northeast of Nancy, France. He did not survive the crash and is buried in the U. S military cemetery at
St. Avold, France. Joe was 26 at the time of his death. He apparently never saw his son, Joseph Leo Egan, III, who had been born on October 22, 1943. H
Captain Joseph Egan, last photo.
COURTESY, TOGETHERWESERVED
CAPTAIN JOSEPH L. “JOE” EGAN, JR. ’34
CONTINUED
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GEORGETOWN PREPARATORY SCHOOL