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Sgt John S. Popesen attended college and worked at The Aristocrat Ice Cream Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a factory where his father, Stephen, a veteran of World War I, was also employed.

He was of Romanian descent and the family name had been Americanized from Popescu to Popesen upon his father's arrival in the U.S.

He had a great desire to join the Army Air Corps after the United States' entry in World War II. Initially he was somewhat overweight and was told to follow a diet, which he did, lose weight and try again. After losing the weight, he enlisted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 13 February 1943. His desire was to become a pilot, and he had dreams of being a commercial pilot after the war. However, it was discovered in the service he had a punctured eardrum, which made him ineligible to realize his dream of becoming a pilot.

According to his nephew, Mr. John Primerano, he was seeing a girl before he entered service. In one of his last letters home, he told of a surprise he would relate in his next letter. His sister Anna received a letter after his death, but she never opened it, and it remains sealed to this day. What the surprise would have been was never known.

The airplane collided in midair with another B-17 (42-102972). Nine crew members were killed and one was taken prisoner.