John E. HOOD

HOOD, HULL, DALTON, WESSEL

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/31/2008 at 15:23:41

Des Moines Register, (IA)
November 25, 2007

John E. Hood passed away on Friday, November 23, 2007. Funeral services will be held at 1 PM, Tuesday, November 27th with burial following at Glendale Cemetery. A visitation will be held from 4 to 6 PM, Monday at Grandview Park Funeral Home.

John was born November 13, 1921 in Goodell, Iowa to Bert and Agnes Hood. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, when he was 5 years old. John went to Stowe Elementary, Woodrow Wilson, Jr. High and then on to East High School and graduated in June 1940. A few days after graduation, John joined the Navy and was stationed at Great Lakes, IL for his basic training. After his training was completed he was assigned to the U.S.S. Houston (CA 30), September 1940. The U.S.S. Houston stopped in Pearl Harbor, Guam and the Philippines until March 1, 1942. On that day his ship was sunk by the Japanese near Java in the Java Sea. Jack was one of the 368 survivors, out of about a 1000 men that were on board the ship. They were taken as slave laborers, prisoners of war. At first they were put to work unloading weapons, supplies and other cargo on Java. Later, John was taken with other prisoners to Burma India to work on a railroad that the Japanese were building from Burma India to Thailand now known as Indonesia. The work consisted of clearing the jungle, making embankments and laying railroad track. The railroad construction was made famous, in 1957 Academy Award Winning Motion Picture, "Bridge Over River Kwai". John lost 50 pounds being a prisoner of war. The men were liberated at daylight, September 6, 1945 by six C47's. John had to finish 10 more months of his six year enlistment after having his medical check-up. He was stationed in San Diego, CA. He was discharged from the Navy, June 23, 1946. Later he received the Purple Heart and many other medals. Upon John's discharge, he returned to his home in Des Moines, IA. He worked as an inspector for Meredith Publishing Company later called R.R. Donnelly and retired after 35 years. During these last 35 years, John was a quiet person and mostly a loner. On April 10, 1987 John had to have major surgery and afterwards a lot of physical therapy. During his recovery, he came out of his shell. His three sisters and all other family members were so happy to have him back in our Lives.

John volunteered at the Physical Therapy Department in Veteran's Hospital for almost 9 years. He enjoyed his drive twice year from Iowa to Houston, TX to attend a U.S.S. Houston Reunion. John also liked watching television particularly the programs about WWII to find out what he missed as a P.O.W.

John is survived by three sisters, Alberta Hull, Shirley (Kenny) Dalton and Carol (Gene) Wessel and numerous nieces and nephews.

We all Love Him and were "OH" so Proud of Him. He is our hero. We would like to give a special thank you to the Veteran's Hospital and Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.