PFC John W. Turner

courtesy of Ken Reeves

PFC John W. Turner was born 2 Jul 1915 in Oxford, Michigan. He was the 2nd of the 3 children born to reverend James Milton and Edna Mary (Robinson) Turner. His father was a Congregationalist minister earning a reported $1200 in 1939. The family had lived in Port Huron, Utica, Oxford, Almont, and Grand Blanc, Michigan. John completed high school and found work as an assembler for Hurd Lock Company in Almont earning $750 in 1939. 

John was drafted in October 1941. His first "permanent" assignment was with Headquarters and Headquarters Company 803rd Anti-Tank Brigade. Assigned to Cannon Company 116th Infantry, he trained with the unit for and participated in the D-Day landings on 6 Jun 1944. He then fought with the unit through the bocage, Saint-Lo, Vire, Brest and to Aachen before he was killed in action on 20 Nov 1944. 

PFC Turner was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Riverlawn Cemetery in Marysville, Michigan

John's only brother, CPL Bruce Newton Turner, died in service with the 415th Night Fighter Squadron on 31 Mar 1945. We believe he was a radar operator and was killed when his aircraft was shot down over Germany.