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Then the family relocated within Westchester County to Crestwood, N.Y., then to Ardsley, N.Y. thru part of John's high school years, then to Hastings-on-the-Hudson where he served three years as captain of the baseball team, and a catcher, coached by Cochrane, who also oversaw the football team where John served as a center. Switzer, the math teacher also served as an assistant coach, he and John attempted to start a hockey team, he also played tennis. John applied to the U.S. Navy while a Senior at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_High_School_(New_York) Hastings High School] in New York but his hay fever kept him from the Navy, so he applied for and was accepted in the Army Air Corps, which he was sent to basic training right after graduating, a week after Mother's Day in 1943, to a week of basic training at Atlantic City, N.J., then to the University of Vermont in Burlington for academics and ten hours of flying time on Piper Cubs, then for a few weeks in the summer at the 526th AAF Base Unit, the Aviation Cadet Classification Center in Nashville, TN.
His primary flight training was at DAR Aerotech in Albany, GA on a Stearman Boeing PT-17 for a couple months, trained by a civilian named Mr. Casler, a GM executive who enjoyed flying and put aside his career to train war pilots. Then he went to Greenwood, MS (two hours south of Memphis) for [https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Greenwood%E2%80%93Leflore_Airport basic flying school], then to Napier Field in Dothan, AL to fly T-6's in training as a fighter pilot. While in Dothan, he was involved with a local Baptist church. Then home for a month of furlough, then to Courtland, AL to await being assigned as a fighter pilot, but he and his crew was assigned as bombers instead, and sent to Harlingen, TX. In the Fall of 1944, he transferred near Springfield, MA to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westover_Air_Reserve_Base Westover Field] to train on flying B-24's with Pratt & Whitney engines, then he was transferred in 1945 from West Virginia by ship to Naples, Italy, and stationed in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecce Lecce], the first base to close as the War wound down, after they finished the fifteen missions. A good friend, Steven Drost, from the Yonkers Chapel with the 8th Air Force lost his life when his plane was hit by another plane shot down.
His first and thirteenth combat missions were the toughest ones, in Vienna, then LenzLinz, Austra Austria with the 98th Bomb Group, 415th Squadron, the latter started on March 22, 1945, with several B-24's in groups of threes, and the first two groups were shot down on the 31st of March, and he flew the lead plane in the third group which was spared. Those killed included:* 2LT William Fowlkes (Terre Haute, IN)* FO Glenn Day (Wilmington, IN)* 2LT Charles Roe (Memphis, TN)* 2LT John E. Mentzer (Lowellville, OH)
* 2LT William Kenneth Fowlkes (b. 1922 Troy, Obion, TN, lived Terre Haute, IN); wife: 1944 @ Terre Haute, IN married Marjorie Rose Black Fowlkes-Watkins (1924-2010 Terre Haute, Vigo, IN). 2nd husband: Roy Wilbert Watkins (1922-1992 Terre Haute, IN). He was buried in Ardennes, France, awarded the Purple Heart & the Air medals. * FO Glenn Lavere Day (b. 1923 Washington, Brown, IN), son of Glenn (b. 1898 Washington, Brown, IN - d. 1980 Bloomington, IN) & Jennie Dell Fritch Day (b. 1902 Jackson, Brown, IN - d. 2000 Bloomington, IN)* 2LT Charles Allen Roe, Jr. (b. 1925 Memphis, TN), son of Charles A. Roe (1898-1977) & Hilda H. Roe (1906-1980). Ultimately he John did fifteen aeronautic bomb runs out of Italy. Then he flew two missions with the 465th Bomb Group in the 780th Squadron, with a base in Pantanella, Italy, before WWII ended, his last mission was April 25, 1945. He served 22 more years, being recalled and restationed throughout the world including the Korean Conflict, and was stationed in Germany until 1952-1954 where he served as an instructor in Oxford, [[Ohio]] at [https://miamioh.edu/ Miami University], and was then an early instructor in Montgomery, [[Alabama]] 1954-1961 at [https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/ Air University] on Maxwell Air Force Base, then served in the Vietnam War, being eventually honorably discharged in 1968 as a Major. He initially developed an interest in flying, inspired by Charles Lindbergh when he was a child, who he had opportunity to meet in 1949 in the 36th Fighter Wing, he was good friends with their wing commander.
After WWII ended, he attended Colgate College in 1946, and on Sept. 10 of that year at Taylor, [[Texas]], John married Betty Annette Allgood (b. 1924 Plainview, Hale, TX), a daughter of Henry Arnold Allgood (b. 1900 Forestburg/Stoneburg, TX - d. 1984 Jasper, TX) & Lucile Ballard Allgood (b. 1898 Killeen, TX - d. 1982 Tulia, Swisher, TX). At the time of Annette's birth, Henry was employed in Lockney, TX as a teacher. In the latter part of 1946, John Sr. and his wife Charlotte tired of NYC life, and removed to upstate New York, to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva,_New_York Geneva].
=Also See=
* [[Messages of Love in New_York]] & [[Messages of Love Around the Globe]]
* [https://voicesforchrist.org/speakers/show/95 John T. Ferris' Voices for Christ sermons] & [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV5kvFPheP8 Andrew Pierce Fancher's interview]
* [[Iowa history]], [[New York history]].
* Well known people with the surname [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_(name) Ferris].