Craven, John Harold, CAPT

Deceased
 
 Service Photo   Service Details
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Last Rank
Captain
Last Service Branch
Chaplain Christian
Last Primary NEC
410X-Chaplain Corps Officer
Last Rating/NEC Group
Staff Corps Officer
Primary Unit
1968-1973, 410X, HQMC (Henderson Hall)
Service Years
1942 - 1973
Chaplain Christian Captain

 Last Photo   Personal Details 

7 kb


Home State
Missouri
Missouri
Year of Birth
1915
 
This Military Service Page was created/owned by Sheila Rae Myers, HM3 to remember Craven, John Harold, CAPT.

If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
 
Contact Info
Home Town
Cape Girardeau, MO
Last Address
McClean, VA
Date of Passing
Apr 10, 2001
 
Location of Interment
Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates
2 E-65 LH

 Official Badges 

US Navy Retired 30 Navy Officer Honorable Discharge


 Unofficial Badges 




 Additional Information
Last Known Activity:


Captain Craven's miltary career began as an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps. He enlisted in the Marines instead of going to college. He was trained at Parris Island, SC. Wanting to apply to the US Naval Academy and having been told any experience on ships would be helpful, he requested and was sent to the Sea School for Marines at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, VA. He then spent 18 months on the USS New Mexico. While there, he gave more thought to attending college and, since he couldn't get into the Navy Academy so easily, the Marine Corps granted him a special discharge so he could attend the college of his choice.

It was while in the Marines he gave thought to the idea of going into the mnistry, so he went to various schools to reach that goal. He spent six years after his ordination - two while serving out his time in the US Marine Corps Reserve - as a civilain Baptist minister. As will be seen by reading other parts of this profile, his Marine Corps and shipboard training would come in handy once he joined the Navy as a chaplain. Most of his war time combat service was spent with Marine Corps.

In 1974, Captain Craven moved to Okinawa on a one-year assignment from the Foreign Missionaries Board of the Baptist Church. He then relocated to Virginia Beach. Until 1989, he was director of Christian Social Ministries for the Norfolk Baptist Association.

In 1995, Captain Craven returned to Iwo Jima to participate in dedication ceremonies for a monument to the Americans and Japanese who had fought there 50 years earlier. After leading a prayer, he embraced a former Japanese army captain who had since become a Buddhist priest. Later he wrote of the experience: "Before leaving the beach and the spot where our command post had been, I photographed a small green plant with a small red bloom. To me it represented the hopes and dreams for peace rising out of the  blood-soaked sands of Iwo Jima."

   
Other Comments:


There are no current citations available for the medals listed. The Bronze Stars and Legion of Merit Awards are listed as part of the service record recorded in the digital collection of the William Madison Randall Library as part of the Military Chaplains in the USA collection. The Silver Star is listed at the arlingtoncemetery.com web site.

The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.

   
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World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Iwo Jima Operation
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945

Description
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.

After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base. However, Navy SEABEES rebuilt the landing strips, which were used as emergency landing strips for USAAF B-29s. 

The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. The Americans on the ground were supported by extensive naval artillery and complete air supremacy over Iwo Jima from the beginning of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators.

Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the Japanese combat deaths were thrice those of the Americans throughout the battle. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. The majority of the remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks later.

Despite the bloody fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the Japanese defeat was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power — coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement — permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.

The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft) Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, both of which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. Rosenthal's photograph promptly became an indelible icon — of that battle, of that war in the Pacific, and of the Marine Corps itself — and has been widely reproduced.
 
   
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
 
Last Updated:
Mar 16, 2020
   
Personal Memories
   
Units Participated in Operation

VF-46 Men-O-War

USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95)

USS Texas (BB-35)

 
My Photos From This Battle or Operation
No Available Photos

  819 Also There at This Battle:
  • Alseike, Leslie, PO3, (1944-1946)
  • Andersen, Allen James, PO1, (1942-1945)
  • Arenberg, Julius (Ted), LTJG, (1943-1946)
  • Baker, Frank, PO2, (1942-1945)
  • Bergin, Patrick
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