This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Jackson Plant, CTR1
to remember
Plant, Harry (Jack), ARM1c.
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Contact Info
Home Town Columbus
Last Address Daytona Beach, FL
Date of Passing Jan 18, 2005
Location of Interment Florida Memorial Gardens - Cocoa, Florida
Why is America lucky enough to have such men?
They leave this tiny ship and fly against the enemy.
Then they must seek the ship, lost somewhere on the sea.
And when they find it, they have to land upon its pitching deck.
Where did we get such men?
James A. Michener
CURTISS SB2C-3 HELLDIVER
Other Comments:
Harry Jackson "Jack" Plant, age 82 of Daytona Beach, Fl., passed away Tuesday at Florida Hospital-Ormond after a long illness.
Mr. Plant was born June 28, 1922 in Columbus, Ga. to Luther Sarge and Goldie Jewell Plant. He was a Navy veteran of WW II. He was an ARM1/c, serving with a SB2C Helldiver squadron attached to USS Lexington. Mr. Plant participated in many campaigns in the Pacific including the battles of Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
and several Air medals, Presidential Unit Citation and the WW II Victory medal, among others.
Mr. Plant worked for the Western Union Telegraph Co. where he retired as Regional Sales Manager after 39 years of service in 1977. He then went to work for Siemens AG as Regional Sales Manager where he retired in 1984.
He was a Pioneer member of Bent Tree Country Club in Jasper, Ga. where he lived from 1971 until he moved to Daytona Beach in 2004. Mr. Plant enjoyed reading and writing histories of the Plant and Vaughn families and he also wrote a book of his experiences in World War II.
Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Caroline; sons, the Rev. Jackson Plant, Crofton, Md., William Plant, Woodstock, and Robert Plant, Tallahassee, Fl.; daughter, Barbara Loper, Ocean Springs, Ms.; sisters,
Kathryn Phillips and Ellen Plant, Columbus, Ga. Five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren also survive. Two brothers, Denton and Robert Plant,
preceded him in death.
Interment will be at National Cemetery in Bushnell, Fl. at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in his name to the American Heart Association.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.
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