Howard McCarty was a 2nd Lieutenant pilot in the United States Army Air Corps in WWII from 1942 to 1946. 

During the Normandy Campaign, he was assigned to the Ninth Air Force, 50th Fighter Group, 81st Fighter Squadron. On August 4, 1944, while returning from an armed reconnaissance mission near Paris and Chartres, France, his P-47D-22 aircraft malfunctioned due to engine troubles, causing him to drop below 6,000 feet. He received heavy enemy flak and was forced to crash land in enemy territory. He survived the crash and avoided capture.