US Navy Pilot John Alfred "Pip" Pipkin was born in Alabama in 1923, the son of John Estle Pipkin (1893-1976) and Thelma Lucille Callaway (1897-1968). His father was a WWI veteran having been inducted on May 23, 1918 and sent to Camp Sevier, South Carolina. He was a farmer in Garland, Alabama at the time he entered the Army as an infantry private. Upon arrival in Europe, he was assigned to the St. Aignan Casual Company. A casual company was an army group assembled for specific duties and drawing personnel from other units. They could be for things like driving ambulances, driving ammunition trucks, etc. They usually volunteered for this dangerous duty to get out of the trenches and the name was taken from the closest town to the base camp. After the war, he embarked on the SS Santa Clara at Bordeaux, France on May 18, 1919, arriving in Brooklyn on May 30th. Upon disembarkation they were sent to Camp Mills on Long Island, which served as demobilization center.
His father became the owner of the Nu-Grape Bottling Company in Atmore, Alabama in December 1927 when he bought out his partner J. D. Callaway. However, he then sold the company to his brother Zemma Pipkin in June 1939. In turn, he purchased a bottling plant in Blackwell, OK and moved it and his family to Pensacola on November 14, 1939. There, he reopened a plant as the Pipkin Bottling Company at 148 East Government Street. In the meantime, his son Alfred (called Pip) enrolled in Pensacola High School and tried out for the next years Tiger football team. He was a natural athlete and quickly became a star running back known as #44.
After his graduation in 1942, Pip enlisted in the US Navy's flight program and was sent to the University of the South at Suwanee, TN for naval officer indoctrination. This was followed by Athens, Georgia for preflight training then on to Norman, OK for primary training. There, they began flying from the Westheimer Airport as well as the 17 auxiliary airstrips around central Oklahoma used for landing practice for the pilots. Upon completion, he was transferred to Corpus Christi where he earned his coveted wings on March 15, 1944. After his graduation, he left for NAS Deland, Florida where specific training was offered in the Dauntless dive bomber and the F6F Grumman Hellcat fighter. Here, such curriculum's as formation flying, night flying and dog fighting were covered by former combat pilots.
On the morning of April 28, 1944, he took off in his aircraft and sometime during the flight collided with another plane, likely but not confirmed during formation practice flying. Pip crashed but was not killed instantly but died of his injuries shortly afterwards. His parents were notified at their home at 1518 East Brainard Street that their son had been killed. His remains were escorted home to Atmore where he was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery.
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