John Albright was born on November 7, 1945, in Huntington, West Virginia. He entered the U.S. Air Force Academy on Jun 24, 1963, and was commissioned a 2d Lt in the Air Force on June 7, 1967. Lt Albright next attended Undergraduate Navigator Training at Mather AFB, California, from August 1967 to May 1968, followed by C-123 Navigator Transition Training from May to July 1968. After completing Survival Training, Lt Albright served as a UC-123B/K Provider Navigator with the 606th Special Operations Squadron at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, from August 1968 until he was Killed in Action over Laos on December 13, 1968. Lt Albright was officially listed as Missing in Action and was promoted through the ranks to Major before being declared dead on May 17, 1979. His remains have never been recovered from Laos.

His Silver Star Citation reads:

First Lieutenant John S. Albright, II distinguished himself by gallantry in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force in Southeast Asia on 30 November 1968. On that date, while flying as a Navigator and Starlight Scope Operator on a mission of unarmed night reconnaissance, flare support and forward air control in a UC-123B Provider, Lieutenant Albright kept his aircraft positioned in a Seventh Air Force antiaircraft high threat area while he marked hostile targets and passed instructions for a series of highly successful strikes against them. Despite the vulnerability of his slow-moving Provider, he called for numerous passes directly over the guns to insure the accuracy of his trike instructions. During one thirty minute period more than four hundred rounds of antiaircraft fire were directed at his aircraft, firing six violent breaks to avoid being hit. Through his courage and determination, Lieutenant Albright was instrumental in the confirmed destruction of four hostile trucks, the silencing of a hostile gun position, two road cuts and four sustained secondary fires. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, Lieutenant Albright has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.