World War II Honoree

John Henry Daniels

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Augusta, Kansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps September 20, 1943 at Kansas City, Missouri and completed his basic training with the Seventh Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from Boot Camp, he was transferred to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California for his combat training. After the completion of his infantry training, he was selected to attend Sea School at San Diego. Served as a gunner aboard the USS Tennessee Battleship, BB-43 assigned to a Marine Detachment in the Pacific Theater of Operations. On March 21, 1945 the Battleship and her shipmates, along with an armada of other battleships, cruisers, and destroyers arrived off shore of Okinawa in support of the impeding invasion. Killed in action Thursday, April 12, 1945 when an Imperial Japanese Kamikaze Pilot flew into the warship, crushing one of the anti-aircraft gun mounts and its crew. He was buried at sea, along with twenty-one of his crewmembers on the day of the attack. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Fairview Cemetery in Augusta, Kansas. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.