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Contact Info
Home Town Warriors Mark, PA
Last Address Hollidaysburg, PA
Date of Passing Jan 13, 1996
Location of Interment Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery (VA) - San Diego, California
Wall/Plot Coordinates Plot: P, 0, C-322
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Capt. John W. Geist was aboard the USS Panay, serving as a Lieutenant (JG) assigned as Medical Officer, when it was attacked and sunk by warplanes of the Imperial Japanese Army in December of 1937. He was severely wounded and faced the possibility of a permanent disability. But, he recovered and went on to serve in WWII and the Korean War, being present for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
Japanese attack on the USS Panay, Yangtze River, December 1937. Listed as: Wounds, multiple, shrapnel, lower left leg and left shoulder. Condition favorable. Possible Osteomyelitis chronic left tibia with ulcer chronic skin of left leg. Possible permanent disabililty resulting in medical discharge.
But he wasn't discharged. Geist and eleven other Panay survivors were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. As they saw the bombers with the red suns on their wingtips come diving down again there was an awful familiarity to it all.
He was later awarded $25,000 by the Japanese government for: Wounds, multiple shrapnel lower left leg and left shoulder.
Description Third Korean Winter, 1 December 1952 - 30 April 1953. Meanwhile the armistice talks had stalled. Discord over several issues, but principally the exchange of prisoners of war, had prevented any agreement in the latter part of 1951. This disagreement was heightened in January 1952. The U.N. delegates proposed to give captives a choice of repatriation, so that those who did not wish to return to Communist control could be repatriated elsewhere. The enemy delegates protested vigorously, insisting that all captives held by the Eighth Army be returned to their side. When the enemy failed to respond to U.N. efforts to settle the question, the U.N. delegation on 7 October called an indefinite recess in the armistice negotiations. Both military operations and armistice talks remained stalemated and, as the year 1952 ended, peace prospects seemed as remote as at its beginning.
