WW2 Fallen - John Hooker, 4th Ranger Battalion

Staff Sergeant John F. Hooker, shown in this photo with his brother Dean, was a ranger in Italy. He served in the 4th Ranger Battalion.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90562729/john-f-hooker
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2017/04/12/u-s-army-rangers-in-world-war-ii/ 

John F. Hooker never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database. We are going to need a lot of volunteers. Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

 

John was born on June 15, 1920 in Iowa. His parents Vernie and Arvella were also both born in Iowa. His father worked as a carpenter and died in 1937. His mother found work as a landlady. John had one younger brother. By 1940 John had completed four years of high school and was living at home with his widowed mother.

He volunteered for the army in February 1941. He further volunteered for the Rangers and reached the rank of staff sergeant in Company B, 4th Ranger Battalion. The Rangers were set up to act as the American version of the British Commandos and engage in small unit special operations as needed. His younger brother Dean also became a ranger. The 4th Ranger Battalion first saw action during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The Rangers were also part of the invasion of Salerno in September 1943. In a couple of months they had advanced to Venafro. The German defense of this mountain region was very costly for the Americans. Sgt. Hooker was killed on November 11, 1943. Eventually, the 4th Ranger Battalion took so many casualties, that it was disbanded in 1944.

His grave is at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines, Iowa.

Thank you Sgt. Hooker for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for John.

This is one of the final 100 stories (80) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.

Last year on this date I profiled B-17 pilot Benajah Burkitt. You can read about Benajah here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org