T5 John Emmitt Wallace III

Our Hometown Heroes

John Emmitt Wallace III

Buried in Marietta National Cemetery

T5 John Emmitt Wallace was born September 7, 1919, in Butts County. He had a twin sister, Lucy (Bell Wallace Miller). Sadly, records show, his mother, Lucy Hester (Bell) Wallace died two weeks after giving birth to the twins.

On his military service enlistment card, it shows Wallace lived with his grandmother, Emily Bailey Wallace, along RFD D, Griffin, Spalding County Georgia. His grandmother was employed by the local Board of Education.

Little else is known of the young man other than he is honored with his name inscribed on the World War II, Monument in Veterans Park.

We do know however, he enlisted in the US Army at Ft. McPherson on September 25, 1942. Wallace became part of the Army’s Signal Corps.

He was stationed in Barrakpore, India. During World War II, the airfield was used as a reconnaissance airfield by the United States Army Air Forces Tenth Air Force, which flew unarmed P-38 Lightning aircraft from the station, equipped with several mapping cameras to gather intelligence on Japanese forces in occupied Burma.

We cannot find how Wallace died, (August 12, 1945) but we do know he was originally buried in India. His body was later moved and reinterred in the National Cemetery in Marietta, GA. His gravesite can be found in Section G, 8324-C.

Wallace’s twin sister, Lucy Bell Wallace Miller, died in 2000, and is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Griffin.