Jay Zeamer Jr. (July 25, 1918 – March 22, 2007) was a pilot of the United States Army Air Forces in the South Pacific during World War II, who received the Medal of Honor for valor during a B-17 Flying Fortress mission on June 16, 1943.

Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Zeamer grew up in Orange, New Jersey, the son of a women's club leader and sales representative for (and later vice-president of) a global leather exporter.

The others are Aquilla J. Dyess, Robert Edward Femoyer, Eugene B. Fluckey, Walter Joseph Marm Jr., Thomas R. Norris, Arlo L. Olson, Mitchell Paige, Benjamin L. Salomon, and Leo K.

[5] After completing ROTC Advanced Camp, he was given a certificate in lieu of a commission in the Infantry Officer Reserves Corps for which he could apply upon his twenty-first birthday.

In March 1941, he received his wings and a commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps after graduating from basic and advanced flight school at Maxwell Field, Alabama.

Sometime during the summer, Zeamer and "all the rest of the second lieutenants" were sent to Patterson Field in Dayton, Ohio, for assisting with the service testing of the new B-26 Marauder by the 22nd Bombardment Group.

He reported for duty with the 403rd Bombardment Squadron in Torrens Creek, Australia, on September 22, reuniting with his gunnery trainer and friend from the previous summer, Joe Sarnoski.

Popular accounts of the crew and its formation refer to them as "screw-offs," "renegades," and "misfits," but are not borne out by the actual record and are either fiction or gross exaggeration.

[citation needed] The bombing of Milne Bay that same day, as well as significant personnel losses to malaria and dengue fever, led to the 403rd being returned to Australia soon after for recuperation.

Almost two months of non-combat followed, prompting another transfer for Zeamer, this time into the 65th Bomb Squadron of the 43rd BG, based in Port Moresby, New Guinea, in late March 1943.

The plane was one of the few in the theater equipped with the trimetrogon camera system, which allowed the creation of photographic mosaics for generating accurate ground maps.

The aircrew replaced the aircraft's aging engines with new, stripped the bomber of much of its extra weight, and added additional heavy machine guns, including dual .50 caliber M2 Brownings in both the radio compartment and waist gun positions, three in the nose, including a fixed .50 caliber in the plexiglas combing that Zeamer could directly fire from his pilot's control yoke.

Contemporary accounts, including the 65th Bomb Squadron's morning report for that day, as well as Zeamer's own flight log, record the aircraft being equipped with 16 active .50 caliber machine guns, with three additional spares stored in the B-17's catwalk for quick combat-related substitution, if and when needed.

Citation: In April 1943, Zeamer and the crew had been approached about a solo, 1,200-mile (1,900 km) round-trip photo-mapping mission of the western coast of Bougainville, with emphasis on Empress Augusta Bay where any marine landings would be made.

Twice already, once the night before and once as the aircraft was taxiing for take-off, they were ordered by V Bomber Command to do a photo recon of the Japanese airstrip on Buka, a small island off the northern tip of Bougainville.

Zeamer rejected the idea both times as too dangerous, almost guaranteeing interception by enemy fighters while in sustained level flight for the mapping operation.

Arriving too early at Bougainville to start the aerial mapping, Zeamer put the question to his aircrew of whether to pass the time flying over the ocean or perform the Buka recon.

Despite his wounds, Zeamer avoided any further extensive damage to the plane by repeatedly turning into the oncoming fighters, just inside the trajectory of their fixed fire, a technique he learned while in the 22nd BG.

The lack of oxygen, in addition to Zeamer's and the navigator's injuries, meant a return to Port Moresby over the Owen Stanley Mountains was impossible.

Zeamer was initially thought dead from loss of blood, but he was treated with the other injured aircrew members by the 10th Field Ambulance of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps before being transported back to Port Moresby the next day.

In addition, World War I pilot Ralph Talbot and his observer, Robert G. Robinson, were awarded the Medal of Honor for two missions they undertook together.)

Zeamer then worked for a series of aerospace companies: Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, Connecticut, followed by Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles, California, and finally Raytheon in Bedford, Massachusetts.