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Jack McKenna

 

Date and Place of Birth: June 10, 1914 New York, NY
Date and Place of Death:    October 8, 1943 Camp Howze, TX
Baseball Experience: Amateur
Position: Pitcher
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Military Unit: US Army
Area Served: United States

John J. "Jack" McKenna was born in New York on June 10, 1914. His family moved to Hollis in Queens, New York, when he was a young boy, Jack attended Jamaica High School and starred as a pitcher for the South Hollis team and Graybar Club of the Queens Baseball Alliance. He also played football with the Hollis Cardinals.

Jack worked as a salesman in the publishing industry and entered military service in 1940. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and went on to earn a commission at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. By 1943, he was a liaison pilot with a field artillery detachment at Camp Howze, near Gainesville, Texas.

Second Lieutenant McKenna, who had married Texas school teacher Margaret Briggs, in May 1943, was tragically killed in a flying accident at Camp Howze on October 8, 1943.

His body was returned to New York, and , following requiem mass at St. Pascal Roman Catholic Church in Hollis, he was buried at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York.

Date Added September 15, 2017

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