First Lieutenant Billy Jordan Maddux was born on December 22, 1921, in Breckenridge, Texas, to Thomas Franklin "Frank" Maddux and Zola Elosia Foster. The family moved to New Mexico, where Billy graduated from Hobbs High School in 1940. Billy enlisted in the Army Air Force in December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and after training as an aircraft mechanic was accepted as an Aviation Cadet in July 1942. After receiving his pilot wings and being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943 he first served as a flight instructor before being assigned as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 509th Bomb Squadron, 351st Bomb Group, at RAF Polebrook in England. Billy completed 35 combat missions from July 1944 to March 1945, targeting German airfields, factories and synthetic oil refineries. Billy was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and awarded the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf clusters before being discharged in September 1946. He met Sergeant Ella Roberta Kovach of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) at Hendricks Field, Florida, and they were married on December 27, 1945. Billy and Ella raised a family of three daughters while Billy worked as a chemist in Texas, Louisiana and New Jersey. Ella attended the Ochsner Medical Center School of Nursing in New Orleans and became a nurse, working at hospitals in New Jersey and Charlottesville, Virginia. Billy was a research engineer for the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville when he passed away on May 29, 1980. He was buried in Section G of Culpeper National Cemetery. Ella moved to Tennessee before returning to Charlottesville, where she died on October 27, 2017. She now rests with Billy.
First Lieutenant Billy Jordan Maddux was born on December 22, 1921, in Breckenridge, Texas, to Thomas Franklin "Frank" Maddux and Zola Elosia Foster. The family moved to New Mexico, where Billy graduated from Hobbs High School in 1940. Billy enlisted in the Army Air Force in December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and after training as an aircraft mechanic was accepted as an Aviation Cadet in July 1942. After receiving his pilot wings and being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943 he first served as a flight instructor before being assigned as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 509th Bomb Squadron, 351st Bomb Group, at RAF Polebrook in England. Billy completed 35 combat missions from July 1944 to March 1945, targeting German airfields, factories and synthetic oil refineries. Billy was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and awarded the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf clusters before being discharged in September 1946. He met Sergeant Ella Roberta Kovach of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) at Hendricks Field, Florida, and they were married on December 27, 1945. Billy and Ella raised a family of three daughters while Billy worked as a chemist in Texas, Louisiana and New Jersey. Ella attended the Ochsner Medical Center School of Nursing in New Orleans and became a nurse, working at hospitals in New Jersey and Charlottesville, Virginia. Billy was a research engineer for the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville when he passed away on May 29, 1980. He was buried in Section G of Culpeper National Cemetery. Ella moved to Tennessee before returning to Charlottesville, where she died on October 27, 2017. She now rests with Billy.
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