| Notes |
- War Department
Bureau of Public Relations
Press Branch
SIS Release B-28.
In his first combat action last April 23, in Italy, PFC John Charles Squires, 18 and only nine months in the Army, won the Medal of Honor, the Nation's highest military award.
A month later to the day, PFC Squires, Kentucky Infantryman, was killed in action on the Anzio beachhead, Italy.
Posthumous award of the medal was announced today. Presentation will be made to his father, Leroy Y. Squires, 663 Westlawn, Louisville, in ceremonies to be announced later.
PFC Squires was a member of the 30th Infantry, Regiment, 3d Infantry Division, action as platoon messenger on April 23 when he volunteered for a series of dangerous missions, captured 15 German machineguns, one of which he used against the energy, and took 21 prisoners by himself.
He was described by his parents as an "average" American boy, who played sand-lot football with his friends and worked at what he could find to do. He had an "average" record at school. He ran with his "gang" in the Shawnee section of Louisville, where he was born May 19, 1925.
His grey-haired mother still greviously mourns the death of her youngest son. There are two other boys in service, Cpl. Leroy Squires, 23, and Pvt. Steven Squires, 21, both in the Army in Italy. They have a younger sister, Mary Virginia, 17, who lives at home.
John was born at the address where his parents now live. He attended Holy Cross elementary school, then went to Shawnee High School for a year and spent another year at Louisville Male High School, quitting to take a job. He had been a member of the Junior Reserve Officers Trailing Corps at Male High.
First he worked for the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine works at Jeffersonville, Ind., but when his age was discovered - he was 17 - he was discharged. He went to work in the office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad where he stayed until being inducted on August 14, 1943.
He received his training at the Infantry Replacement Training Center, Ft. McClellan, Ala., and had his last furlough home for Christmas, 1943. He went overseas to join the 3d Infantry Division in January of 1944.
His father is in the U.S. Postal Service in Louisville, having taken a postal job in 1925. He is a native of Nebraska and was living in Indianapolis when the first World War started. He served with the 309th Engineers for 10 months in France, most of the time around Metz.
The action in which PFC Squires won the Medal of Honor was called
|
1925 - 1944 (19 years)
[1, 2] 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set