James Burns served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant with the 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 359th Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force in World War II. On January 20, 1945, he co-piloted a B17 (43-38258 "Forget Me Not Olly") on a mission targeting a railroad bridge at Mannheim, Germany. He was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Mannheim and forced to land in France. He was moved to the 30th British General Hospital in Lille, France, where he died the next day, January 21, 1945.
