John Scharf was from California, and his wife, Dorothy, was traced to an address in San Ardo, California. This is where she was living at the time of the crash of the C 47. She has since remarried. The Pilot's son has also been traced, his name is Robert Carl Scharf and lives in San Ardo also.
John Scharf joined Moore Field Texas, as an aviation Cadet on the 24th of March, 1943, where as a student pilot he trained on AT-6s and P-40s. He was pilot rated on the 24th of May, in the same year, and transferred to 89th Troop Carrier Group at Bergstrom Field, Austin, Texas. During June 1943 he trained exclusively on C-53s. The following month he moved to 63rd Troop Carrier Group (9th Squadron) at Grenada Air Field, Mississippi to continue his training.
He flew a C-47 for the first time on the 23rd of July and continued training on this aircraft as co-pilot, completing over 18 hours in that capacity during the month.
Throughout August and September his training continued. His flight records come to an end on the 30th of October, 1943. It is interesting to note that he had nearly 500 hours logged as pilot by the end of that month. His co-pilot, Lawrence Goodin, on the ill-fated flight had a total of 262 hours pilot time.
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