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John S. Whitlow, born in 1906, joined the 246th Coastal Artillery, Virginia National Guard shortly before World War II. In 1942, he trained at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. A Technician 5th Grade, he was assigned to Battery A, 65th Armored Artillery Battalion.
He ran phone lines between the Battery and Headquarters in North Africa and Sicily and was awarded the Legion of Merit. The 65th was attached to the 101st Airborne on D-Day and landed on Uncle Red Sector of Utah Beach. On June 28th he earned his Purple Heart outside of St Lô, where he was wounded in the shoulder. After the war, he became a mechanic in Lynchburg, Va. He died on August 7, 1981. |