PVT John Walker Small Jr

courtesy of Rich

PVT John Walker Small Jr was born 5 Dec 1918 in Chicago, Illinois to John Walker and Mary Elizabeth (Flavin) Small. He was the 2nd of their 4 children. His father worked as a checker in a meat packing house and later as a milk salesman earning a reported 1939 income of $1299. That same year John Jr. was working as an apprentice draftsman in a steel mill earning $200! Sometime after April 1940, John Jr. married Louise Mary Gallo and they had a son in August 1941.

John was drafted in April 1944. After his basic military training he was sent to the European theater and, on 25 Oct 1944, was transferred from the replacement depot to A Company 116th Infantry. However, some cross-leveling was needed in 1st Battalion and on 6 Nov 1944 he was again transferred, this time to C Company 116th Infantry. He served with that unit until 17 Nov 1944 when he was killed in action as the unit attacked German forces in Setterich, Germany.

PVT Small was repatriated in 1949 and re-interred in Evergreen Park in Cook County, Illinois.

Younger brother Daniel Walker Small served in the U.S. Navy in WWII.