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2ndLt John E. Isbell attended Bruceton High School in Carroll County. He was employed as a chemist at du Pont de Nemours Company in Old Hickory.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in nahville Tennessee on 9 June 1942.

Statement of Sgt Harold K. Ream: "Enemy fighters came in attacking A/C 42-3391 in group of threes and set the #3 engine on fire. This happened on their first pass and A/C 42-3391 peeled off to the left and fell behind. Fighters jumped him again and he started going down in a long flat spin with his engine still on fire."
2n Lt John E. Isbell was together with 2nd Lt Willis R Moon, Co-Pilot, and 1st Lt Ormond F Fochtman, Navigator at the escape hatch. According to 1st Lt Fochtman he was uninjured at that time. 2nd Lt Moon bailed out. At that moment 2nd Lt Isbell was still preparing to bail out when the plane exploded. 1st Lt Fochtman was blown clear of the plane en was very badly injured but survived, 2nd Lt Isbell however did not make it.

A French prisoner of war, Mr. Capioux, who had an operation in the same hospital as had Radio Operator, S/Sgt Perry Damsky, and the Navigator, 1st Lt Ormond F. Fochtman, at Neunkirchen, Austria was subsequently discharged and put to work as a gravedigger. This Frenchman aided in the burial of the four men that were killed in action.

Mr. Capioux brought the names from their dog tags to Lt Fochtman. All four of them were buried in one grave at the cemetry of Mönichkirchen, Austria.

His two other brothers were also in the service. Sgt Albert E. Isbell Jr. is also buried at Margraten American Cemetery: Plot F, Row 11, Grave 24.