PVT John Lawrence Messer

PVT John Lawrence Messer was born in Methuen, Massachusetts on 23 Jul 1922. He was the 2nd of John Benjamin and Elizabeth F. (Morse) Messer's 4 children. His father worked as a foreman in a woolen mill but later became a police officer in Methuen reporting a income of $2007. The family lived at 21 Tower Street in Methuen in 1940. John graduated from Edward F. Searles High School and was working for Arlington Mills, also in Methuen, by the time he registered for the draft in 1942.

John was drafted in November 1942. After his basic military training he was sent to England and assigned to B Company, training with the unit as it prepared for the planned amphibious invasion of  Nazi occupied France. PVT Messer was killed in action in that assault when he was shot in the neck on 6 Jun 1944.

PVT Messer was undoubtedly repatriated and re-interred in the Methuen area.