Jesse M. Bonner was born in Mercer Pennsylvania on July 6, 1897. He graduated from Cornel University School of Military Aeronautics in August of 1918 and enlisted shortly after. After the war, he joined the Signal Reserve Corp where he qualified as a Reserve Military Aviator, 2-Lieutenant at Eberts Fields Aviation School in Lonoke Arizona. Like most pilots of the time, he trained flying the Curtis JN 4d, the "Flying Jenny."

- The Jesse Bonner Family