On Friday, May 26th 1967, LIMA Company assulted the position but met little resistance. The battlefield was covered with bodies, weapons and other items the NVA left behind. The hill was also littered with unexploded shells and 1st Lt. Richard Daerr called the Squad Leaders together to give them instructions to get off the hill.

         At the same time John was policing the area. He found a different type of mine hanging from or tied to a tree. For whatever reason he picked it up and walked towards the command post. He arrived at 2:05 PM (1405). He said something to the effect of "Look at this". Cpl John Coleman, who was a squad leader at the time, saw it just before it exploded and described it to me as being "the size to two large pie tins put together". LCpl Ron Parsons, who was radioman at the time, was keeping a list of the items recovered and also looked up. He later identified the mine as a Chinese Communist DH-10 type claymore mine. This was a manually activated mine, you had to manually set it off as compared to American claymores which could be set off electrically. This mine was about 1 foot in diameter and about 4 inches thick. Lt Daerr said he remembered John walking towards them "and then darkness and pain".

                  The same mine that killed John also killed or wounded a number of other good men. Thomas "Goodie" Goodrich from Cortland NY was killed as was Willie B. Skrine Jr. from Sparta, Georgia. Lt. Richard Daerr, who was to earn a Silver Star for an action that took place on May 20th, was critically wounded. John Coleman and Ron Parsons were also both severely wounded. Rocky Crumrine was also wounded. Steve Weber who as an Asst. Gunner was spared because he was in a prone position setting up a perimeter.

         Lt. Daerr said of John "He was an outstanding Marine, [. . .] always looking out for his fellow Marines, as was true of all my Marines". He may have been wounded during the battle and in shock, at this point there's no way to know. It's not uncommon to go into shock after a battle like this even if you weren't wounded. It probably wasn't a good idea to actually remove the mine from the tree but we have no way of knowing what mental shape John was in when he did it. He must have thought he had rendered the mine harmless.

         The commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, Major Samuel Faulk, had this to say about John in a letter he wrote to John's widow Ann. "John's cheerful disposition, uprightness, and devotion to duty won for him the respect of all who knew him." In a different letter sent to John's parents he had this to say "John was one of the finest Marines I had ever known. His exemplary conduct, leadership, and singular determination to do every job well were qualities that all of us respected. We will miss him and hope that you will find some comfort in knowing this."

         This is a photo of John that was probably taken at Hill 42 near An Hoa sometime in September or October of 1966. He's sitting on top of an ONTOS (a tracked vehicle with six 106 recoiless rifles). The Thompson submachine gun he's holding probably belongs to the ONTOS crew because they were too heavy to carry in the field and their range was not long enough. The beer was delivered to the field about once a month.

This photo was taken on hill 42 near An Hoa. They are looking pretty dusty because they had just come in from convoy duty guarding trucks on Liberty Road.

         John was laid to rest at the Pinelawn Cemetery.