The Marlborough
Historical Society

    John was born the 20th of April 1922 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, one of six children born to William and Alice Pomphrey.  He was a 1941 graduate of the Marlborough High School where he was a star player on the hockey team.  Known as Jack to his friends, he lived with his parents at 79 State Street and was remembered as an avid hunter who raised English setters a type of dog.  He worked for Bradley furniture, the Lapointe Machine company and was working for the Johnson-Claflin company when he enlisted into the Army Air Corps the 9th of November 1942. 

    Following his basic training he was sent to the China-Burma-India theatre and assigned to the 490th Bomb Squadron of the 341st Bombardment Group.  He was eventually promoted to Sergeant and served aboard B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft as a radio gunner.  The 490th was stationed at Camp Moire in Ondal, India in early January 1943 and began attacks over the mountains into Burma shortly thereafter. John joined the unit in February of 1943. The 490th were known as the “skull and wings” squadron for their unique unit insignia and developed a special way to bomb bridges known as glip bombing earning them the nickname the “Burma Bridge Busters”. This unit was very successful and destroyed over 191 bridges in Burma over the course of the war.

    From May until June of 1944 the unit ferried supplies and ammo from Chittagong, India to allied units fighting the Japanese invasion at Imphal, India. John and his aircrew participated in over 68 combat missions for which he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal. On the 11th of August 1944 in route to a bombing mission on Kada, Burma the B-25 that John was a crewmember of developed engine trouble and was not able to fly high enough to clear a mountain in its path. The pilot ordered the crew to bail out. The aircraft crashed into thick jungle and no trace of John was ever found, three of the five crewmen survived. John’s name is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. A cenotaph to his memory is located in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Pomphrey Drive in Marlborough is named in his honor.

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