US Army Air Corps Lt. Joseph "Little Joe" Sears Lovett Jr. was born in Pensacola, Florida on September 6. 1916, the son of Joseph S. Sr. (1887-1979) and Mary Emolyn Douglas (1886-1979). His father was stationed at the Pensacola Navy Yard in 1910 as a sailor in the US Navy. That same year he would marry Mary Emolyn Douglas (1886-1979) on October 26, in Brewton, Escambia County, Alabama. His father's service card indicated that he must have come out of the Navy sometime around 1913 or before and became a clerk for the L&N Railroad in Pensacola. However, it also shows him reenlisting in the Navy on January 2, 1917 at the Navy Aeronautic Station, Pensacola as a 1st Class Radio Electrician. By April 6, he had transferred to the Navy's recruiting station in Atlanta, GA until June 29 when he was stationed aboard a "receiving ship" in New York as a Chief Electrician. He was back to his former duties in Atlanta by April 11, 1918. He was placed on inactive duty on May 20, 1919 as a Chief.
By 1927, Lovett was out of the Navy and had relocated his family to Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. There his father went to work as a shoe salesman for the Stark Altmaier Shoe Company. Little Joe would graduate from North High School in 1934 in Clintonville within Franklin County. Not long after graduation he enrolled and attended Ohio State University until he went to work for Englander Bedding Company as a salesman. During this period of time, Little Joe's older sister Mary Douglas Lovett (1913-1999) would marry Robert C. Reese in Champaign Company, OH on March 31, 1939. On April 25, 1941, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot at Ft. Hayes in Columbus. The Army post had been used for years as a reception and processing center.
For his primary flight training he was sent to the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics in Sikeston, Missouri. Upon completion, he was transferred to Randolph Field, near Houston, Texas for his basic pilot training. Here, the trainees were assigned to an AT-6 aircraft for their advanced flight training. When the trainee had mastered their flying proficiency with the AT-6 they would move on to a fighter or bomber assignment. Little Joe would receive his cherished wings here on December 12, 1941. Because of his proficiency, the Army asked him to remain at Ellington as an instructor however he asked to be transferred to a combat squadron immediately as a pursuit pilot instead.
By January 12, 1942, he was on the first American convoy bound for Australia and was in the first fighter squadron to reach New Guinea. Port Moresby at the time was critical to the Allies and the Japanese were determined to destroy it. The enemy fighters escorting the bombers could fly at 30,000 feet, far higher that Little Joe's P-39 could reach. Joe and his comrades were assigned to the 8th Pursuit Group (Fighter) of the 5th Air Force stationed in Australia in March 1942. During this time Joe's group was sent to New Guinea to bolster the defenses. Three days after arriving, Joe shot down his first enemy aircraft while his buddies got two more. The next day, their base was suddenly attacked by a large number of enemy bombers with a fighter escort. The only available planes to stop them was Lovett and five other fighter pilots. As Joe jumped into his plane he told his commander, "Well, if they get me today, we'll still be even, I got one yesterday." Sadly, during the dogfight Lovett was shot down and killed. Luckily, his remains were recovered but not so for his comrades who continued the fight for the next six weeks. None of them were ever recovered.
Back home, his family received a cablegram from Joe around June 4, 1942 with a short but simple message " All OK." Five days after that cablegram, the family was notified that Joe had been killed in action and was subsequently buried in Port Moresby. The family was stunned and heartbroken in their home in Brewton, Alabama where he was the chairman of the War Bond Committee! Distraught to do something to honor his son, Joseph Sr. wrote a poem called the "The Last Flight" seen in its entirety below. The poem went nationwide, with one even sent to the famous Hollywood actor and comedian Joe E. Brown. Brown read the poem over his own son's grave after he was killed in a military plane crash. While Brown was entertaining US troops in New Guinea, he visited Lovett's grave and made a photo for his parents. After the poem spread parents from all over the US wrote the Lovett's thanking them for the poem that many used for their own family members.
A copy of another Lovett poem was also sent to the bandleader of Little Joe's North High School where he and his brother Tom set it to music and presented on the Fred Waring radio program on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1943. The lyrics were:
“Tonight, beside the Coral Sea, Where crosses stand so silently, A boy is Sleeping. No more to fly in rain and sun. Through hail of death from bomb and gun. His day is o’er – his work is done. We are not weeping For through the days of war and strife. Of these for which he gave his life. A boy was dreaming. Was dreaming of God, To worship as we may. Of home, where children sing and play And love, that makes our life each day So bright and gleaming has won. And now, beside the crystal sea A boy is waking No more to fly in rain and sun His night is o’er his day begun. And soon that road which he We will be taking.”
Little Joe's mother would pass away in June 1979 followed by his father Joseph Sr. three months later in September 1979. There has been no verification of Joe Jr.'s burial site in Port Moresby.
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