Schoonover, John Harry, PO1

Petty Officer First Class John Schoonover was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma BB37.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency annouce  He was accounted for on Aug 17, 2017. Internment Services are pending. 

John Harry Schoonover was born 13 October 1902 in Port Edwards, Wood county, Wisconsin to Ralph Edward and Gertrude (Stutsville) Schoonover.  He had two brothers and three sisters; he was the third child of this family.  His Dad was working as a blacksmith before he was born but later became a machinist for a paper mill.  John’s mother died when he was about seven years old.  By the time he was 17, he was working in a paper mill also.  Census records indicate he had two years of high school.  After his dad died in 1935, he married Anita Ruth Bower in 1936 where he became a step-father to her daughter and later they had a son together.  He enlisted in the navy 29 January 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and re-enlisted 29 January 1941. 
He was aboard the USS Vega in November 1939, the USS Argonne on 20 December and then from the USS Arizona to the USS Oklahoma on 21 December 1939 where he stayed.  On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers helped launch an air strike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.  The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II.  At the onset of the attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was moored at berth Fox 5 on “Battleship Row.”  Just before 8:00 am that Sunday morning, the Oklahoma was among the first ships struck.  She was stuck by eight torpedoes within the first ten minutes.  One struck her port side opening the hull almost completely from below the forward gun turret back to the third turret – over 250 feet - and she capsized within 20 minutes.  After the Arizona, she had the largest loss of life, 429 sailors and marines.  Rescue efforts were intense but only 32 sailors were recovered alive from the hull.  The Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired.  In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap.  While under tow to San Francisco, California, she sank in a storm.  Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
Pharmacist Mate 1st Class Jon Harry Schoonover (Service Number 3280249) was originally listed as Missing in Action but through a DNA process his remains were identified on 17 August 2017 and sent to Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Florida.  He is still listed on the Honolulu Memorial (#9016428) and the USS Oklahoma (#80554603) where a rosette has been placed to indicate the identification.  He received the following commendations: Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, WW II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Navy Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and Navy Expeditionary Medal.
 
https://pearlharbor.org/history-uss-oklahoma/
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-oklahoma-and-uss-maryland-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html
Find-a-Grave.com
Ancestry.com
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org).  This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3.  Can you help write these stories?   to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.