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/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
3.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=fcb7fe5cf5605e9019744f1b9bcc573e "Navy Aerial Gunner (WWII)")
