John McGlohon was born in June 1923 in Guilford County, North Carolina where he lived for the first six months of his life, after which the family moved to Asheboro, North Carolina. His father worked in a furniture factory and his mother was a substitute schoolteacher. He grew up during the Great Depression years, and although the family didn't have much, they kept a garden, poultry, and a cow, and McGlohon had a paper route, and wasn't aware that they were poor. But he was well aware that many people were out of work, and watched his mother share what little they had. On his eighteenth birthday he went to the Army recruiting office to enlist because he "wanted to get out of town." McGlohon said he built model airplanes as a kid, and chose the Army Air Corps in order to fly. He had completed "recruit camp", living in a hangar while he swept streets and drilled at Maxwell Field in Alabama, and had just transferred to the 3rd Photo Recon Squadron [Annotator's Note: 3rd Photo Mapping Squadron] in the Old Mill in Montgomery, Alabama when he heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. After church that Sunday, he went into town to take in a movie, but the management closed the curtain and made an announcement for all military personnel to return to base. He began his career in photography in his spare time down the hall from the orderly room where he was stationed. The older Army guys took him under their wing and taught him "the business," and he eventually took over the film lab. He was moved to MacDill Air Base in Tampa, Florida where he was in charge of film developing, and established a lab of his own there.

In early 1942, John McGlohon's squadron [Annotator's Note: 3rd Photo Mapping Squadron] was assigned a mapping mission in Recife, Brazil. Two B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] were prepared for the journey, but one crashed on takeoff, and McGlohon and the rest of the flight crew were delayed for a few weeks. He and a colleague built a lab to handle the work from four C-45s [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft Model 18 Twin Beech light utility aircraft] flying missions over upper Brazil and along the Amazon. When one of the photographers was sent home sick, McGlohon took his place, and sometimes he would fly the plane while the pilot took a nap. Next, he flew in a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] on a mission in Canada to map the route that became the ALCAN Highway [Annotator's Note: Alaska - Canada Highway; constructed to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada]. He then went to Naknek [Annotator's Note: Naknek, Alaska], then to Fairfax, Alaska, to map the area covered in the Attu and Kiska [Annotator's Note: both in the Aleutian Islands] invasions. When that fell through, his unit pulled out, and switched to B-24s fitted with extra gas tanks, and began working the China-Burma-India Theater [Annotator's Note: usually referred to as the CBI]. McGlohon's position was right in the nose of the plane, and because of the shortage of gas, the aircraft had to fly low and dodge mountains as they mapped "The Hump" [Annotator's Note: aerial supply route over the Himalayan Mountains between India and China]. While he was in the CBI, McGlohon contracted malaria, and spent some time in a hospital. When he returned to the United States, he had ten day furlough, during which he suffered a relapse. When he returned to work, his squadron [Annotator's Note: 1st Photo Mapping Squadron] was transitioning to B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. After training, McGlohon went back to Pushkar, India to cover Myitkyina [Annotator's Note: Myitkyina, Burma now Myitkyina, Myanmar], where they encountered Japanese fighter aircraft "flying around like mosquitos," and a sky filled with ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], but they got the photos.

When John McGlohon's crew arrived in Pushkar, India, they were told they would have to surrender their new plane to the bomber crews whose aircraft were worn out. However, the colonel said they were needed immediately, and took off again to get footage at Myitkyina, Burma [Annotator's Note: now Myitkyina, Myanmar], where they encountered Japanese fighter aircraft "flying around like mosquitos," and a sky filled with ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], but they got the photos. As part of Flight C, 1st Photographic Squadron [Annotator's Note: 1st Photo Mapping Squadron], McGlohon moved on to Tsin Ching, China, and flew normal rotation across the Shandong Peninsula. One story McGlohon wanted to mention was of another plane in his squadron that caused them great concern. It sent out a "mayday" message after one of its engines went out and took off a wing. The crew bailed out and all were alive, but they were picked up by Chinese Communist troops, put in Chinese uniforms, and marched for 82 days over 1,200 miles to be turned over to Chinese nationalists. Following that story, he mentioned that an engine went out on one of his own missions, and the crew had to decide whether to bail out or try to get back to base. They turned the plane toward home, but had to land at an abandoned base near Sian, China, where they eventually got parts to fix the plane so they could return to base. He also recalled a flight where they were lost in cloud cover over the China Sea, and when they emerged, they recognized they were over Nagasaki, Japan flying at 5,000 feet and being barraged by ack-ack, but once again came away whole. When McGlohon next got orders, it was to go to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands].

By the time John McGlohon arrived on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], the Japanese war effort was flagging. He rejoined his original 3rd Photographic Reconnaissance Group [Annotator's Note: 3rd Photo Mapping Squadron], and was flying routine operations off the cliffs of North Field. In the early hours of 6 August [Annotator's Note: 6 August 1945], McGlohon's crew took off from Guam as usual; the assignment was to fly over the city of Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] and the northern islands. As they approached Hiroshima, one of the crew idly commented that a plane he saw headed in the opposite direction must be on its way to Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. Within seconds, there was an unusually brilliant flash, and everyone wondered what triggered it. McGlohon saw the cloud coming up, and assumed the plane they had just passed had run into trouble and had to salvo its bomb load. Figuring he would confirm the hit, McGlohon turned his cameras on, and as his plane flew directly over the explosion, the automatic overlap film was running, taking photos through the 12 inch ground glass. While that was happening, he picked up his hand-held camera and walked into the B-29's [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] blister, and shot the cloud as they flew away. McGlohon's aircraft completed its mission without breaking radio silence, and when they got back to Guam, they walked into a din of excitement over the explosion of an atomic bomb. There were guards at the photo lab's doors, and McGlohon was told to dump the exposed film from his shoot out of the way. When he recognized that the lab was developing pictures of the cloud he flew through, he indicated that he, too, had taken shots of the event. Someone told him that if he really had flown through the cloud, he would be dead by morning. They went though his rolls, and merged his negatives with those from the Omar Cox collection to send to General LeMay [Annotator's Note: USAAF then USAF General Curtis E. Lemay]. It was the last he saw of those pictures; the war ended in September, and in October McGlohon was discharged and went home. For 40 years, John McGlohon wondered what happened to the rest of his crew. One day he got a telephone call at his office in the Asheboro, North Carolina fire department from a guy who had been trying to locate him for some time. As a result, McGlohon went to a reunion in Tampa, Florida, and in the hospitality room there was a display that included his shots. Over the ensuing years, he and members of the crew hashed out their versions of the story, and although the recollections were not exactly alike, they confirmed that the stories he had been telling school groups was essentially correct.

Returning to discuss his other assignments all over the globe, John McGlohon conceded that the Aleutian Islands was not the most desirable location to work. The supply ship was stuck in ice two miles offshore, and the Army had to send out hunting and fishing details for food. Volcanic ash ruined their equipment, fog and mud covered everything, and the men were hungry. Living conditions were better when he moved to Fairbanks and Nome, Alaska. When he flew over Myitkyina, Burma [Annotator's Note: now Myitkyina, Myanmar], he depended on cross training he had in gunnery school in Kansas. It was the first time he came into actual combat, but no Japanese planes came close enough for them to score a victory. His aircraft did accomplish a victory over China, and their airplane had one flag pasted on its nose. He recalled one time when a Japanese fighter plane came up through the cloud cover and passed between his plane's wingtip and rudder, nearly missing a mid-air collision. In Alaska, he lived in a Quonset hut; in China, it was an adobe; after he was transferred to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], he lived in a five man tent and worked in a photo cabana. A typical mission started at two in the morning, and because his plane flew alone, they did not go to squadron briefings, but each man checked his own equipment. McGlohon describes the intricate photographic equipment that he used and the role of the aircraft in his work.

John McGlohon said the B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] was the best aircraft he worked in during his time in the service. He also thought they had a good crew chief. His position on the B-29 was in the billeting section in the original incarnation of the plane; he faced the rear, and peered out of the bottom of the aircraft. His responsibility was to take photographs and get his film into the lab; once he left South America, he no longer had anything to do with the lab work. Others would process the film and make prints that would go to intelligence or wherever else they were needed. McGlohon said there were 13 or 14 aircraft doing the same thing. By the time he was flying out of Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], he was 24 years old, and he recognized the vulnerability of a plane that flew unaccompanied. It never crossed his mind that he wouldn't come out of the war alive, although McGlohon lost a brother in the war around the same time. Referring to the 6 August 1945 mission over Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan], McGlohon said there has been some concern about the impact of the blast and cloud of the atomic bomb on his plane and crew. He believes the aircraft got across the top of the cloud before the shock of the blast reached their altitude, and cleared it before the turbulence could affect them. His photograph is a testament of how close they were, and how narrowly they escaped contamination. Until that day, almost no one knew of the existence of an atomic bomb. McGlohon noted that their plane had a recording of the intercom discourse during that mission, and the language was so profane it was destroyed; but, he said, it would be invaluable today.

The fact that John McGlohon is one of the living eye witnesses to the first atomic explosion, and that he was on site during the mere 20 second window after the bomb hit the ground is still remarkable to him. Coincidentally, it was his last mission. He was sitting in the photo lab on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], listening to the base radio, when he heard that Japan had "offered to surrender." He and another GI [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] went through the tent rows and picked up all the ammunition to prevent the men from firing rounds needlessly and endangering the aircraft that were still in the air and the personnel and equipment on the ground. Although McGlohon was a non-drinker, he bought two bottles of liquor, and shared it in the club the next night. He told the story of one of his crew who had been a scrap metal dealer before the war, selling his product to the Japanese; when they were being shelled, the guy would sing, "It's all coming back to me now." The war's ending was a great relief, and as he had the second highest number of points on Guam, he left when his turn came up. He packed up, and took a flight that island-hopped all the way to March Field in California. Then he took a train to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and was discharged from there. He didn't sign up for reserves. His homecoming was a joyful surprise for his family on a rainy Saturday night.

John McGlohon said that his time in the service was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he thinks that, "Every kid coming out of high school should put two years in the military." When he got home from the war, he opened a photography business with a partner, and then got a job offer to be a credit manager for B.F. Goodrich Company. When he left there because of an ownership change, he went to work for the Asheboro, North Carolina fire department and stayed there until he retired, serving the last 25 years of his career there as fire chief. He feels his experience in the military was a perfect training ground for his work in the fire department. He thinks it is important for there to be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] that carry on its educational mission, and he speaks to school groups whenever invited to do the same thing. He said, "It's got to be done."