John P. Maertz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 25, 1918. He entered the United States Army Air Force in October 1942 and received training at air fields in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona before settling in to his first assignment at the Army Air Base in Pocatello, Idaho in April 1943. Maertz's military occupational specialty was photo laboratory technician. In June he returned to Milwaukee on a leave to marry girlfriend La Verne Tramitz. He returned to Pocatello until being shipped to Europe in December 1943, where he served with the 9th Bombardment Division (Medium). Maertz took and developed intelligence as well as historical photographs. He toured and photographed the liberated concentration camp at Buchenwald in 1945. Maertz returned to the United States in October 1945 and was discharged the same month. He and his wife lived in Milwaukee following the war. Maertz passed away on June 15, 1992.
