John wanted to fly since the age of ten, when, on the top deck of an open trolley bus he saw a Rapide biplane land at Croydon aerodrome. He joined the RAF during WW2 and later served as a signals engineer on the Avro York. Unknown to the crew his aircraft was used as a ‘guinea pig’ test of GCA (Ground Controlled Approach). GCA was a procedure where ground control guides the aircraft in during bad visibility and was widely used during the Berlin Airlift. This enabled aircraft to land every two to three minutes, even during the severe winter weather.

During the Airlift John flew 356 trips and only one of these was aborted. One time he flew with a pilot who was so drunk that he was unable to carry out the pre-flight visual inspection but flew correctly once they were airborne. After a crash at Wunstorf which killed the crew, John served as one of the pallbearers at the funeral. He was in his early twenties and never thought about dying, believing that fate played a large part in matters of life and death.

On the 60^th anniversary of the Airlift the Berlin Airlift Association went to Templehof airfield in Berlin for a memorial service. Here he was thanked by the elderly and the very young, an experience he found moving. At the time of the Airlift he thought he was only doing his duty but later he became aware of its importance of it to Berliners.