John Thomas "
Tommy" Mackall was born May 17, 1920 in Wellsville, Ohio.
Tommy Mackall joined the US Army during the 2nd World War and joined the ranks of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment.
During the Allied invasion of Africa, on an operation called Operation Torch, the aircraft Private Mackall and his fellow paratroopers
were on was strafed by French Vichy aircraft while landing near Oran, Algeria. Private Mackall crawled from the aircraft mortally wounded.
He was evacuated to Gibraltar an placed in a British hospital, where he died on Novermber 12, 1942. He was the first United States
paratrooper to die in combat.
In 1943 the home of the Airborne corps, Camp Hoffman was renamed Camp Mackall in honor of his death. Today Camp Mackall
is the home of the Special Forces Training Facility, 1st Special Warfare Training Group.