[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 162 (Thursday, November 14, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8044-S8045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO JOHN WOOD

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
American hero who is also a proud and honored Kentuckian. Mr. John Wood 
of Glasgow, KY, will be honored this month for his service in uniform 
to our country. Mr. Wood served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1941 to 
1947, was present for the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and 
was there at the Battle of Midway Island just months after America 
entered World War II.
  After his military service, Mr. Wood settled in Glasgow, where he 
worked as a radio broadcast engineer from 1949 to 1990. He is a true 
legend from the Greatest Generation who still has much to teach us 
younger folks.
  This November 18, Mr. Wood will be honored at Glasgow City Hall. 
Also, local officials in Glasgow, Cave City, and Barren County will 
join with local veterans' organizations in Kentucky to proclaim 
November 20 as ``John Wood Day'' in Barren County. Coincidentally, on 
November 20, Mr. Wood will also turn 93 years old. I cannot think of a 
better tribute to this fine man's service than to recognize him on his 
birthday.
  My fellow Kentuckians can turn out to see Mr. Wood when he serves as 
the Grand Marshal for the Cave City Christmas Parade later this year, 
and also as a featured guest in the Glasgow Christmas Parade. These 
will be wonderful community events to bring Kentuckians together to 
honor John Wood's service and to say thank you to all veterans in the 
Christmas spirit.
  I know I speak for my colleagues in the U.S. Senate when I express 
gratitude to Mr. John Wood for his service to our great Nation. 
Kentucky is proud to have him in our midst. I want to wish him a very 
happy birthday, a happy John Wood Day, and a Merry Christmas and a 
Happy New Year.
  Recently an article appeared in a Kentucky publication, the Sanford 
Herald, highlighting Mr. Wood's life of service. I ask unanimous 
consent that the full article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Sanford Herald, November 9, 2013]

                Marine Vet Recounts Pearl Harbor, Midway


           John E. Wood Remembers his Service in the Pacific

                           (By Anna Johnson)

       Sanford.--When the first Imperial Japanese plane burst into 
     a ball of fire, John E. Wood thought he saw something else 
     fall toward the small Hawaiian island where he was stationed 
     in 1942.
       ``I saw something drop from the plane,'' Wood said. ``I 
     thought at first he had bailed out. A little closer you could 
     tell it wasn't the pilot. It was a silver bomb.''
       It was just a few seconds later when the bombs fell in 
     unison toward the Marine Corps 6th Defense Battalion, 
     destroying plane hangars, power stations, and a cluster of 
     above-ground fuel tanks near Wood.
       ``I got half nauseated from the smoke and all of those guns 
     being fired,'' Wood said. ``There were fuel tanks burning. 
     The island was just, almost, engulfed with smoke. And then 
     the planes dropped all their bombs.''
       Wood, a former Lee County resident, manned a .50-caliber 
     machine gun--``They were airplane guns, but they had mounts 
     so they could rotate''--when the Imperial Japanese planes 
     began to fly toward and over Midway Atoll on June 4, 1942.
       ``We could see them off in the distance,'' Wood said. ``Two 
     or three planes would go down, a plume of smoke behind them. 
     Off the shore away, you'd see a splash when one would go down 
     We were ordered to fire when they got in range.''
       One plane, tilting from damage to its left tail, came into 
     close range near Wood, giving them a close encounter with the 
     pilot.
       ``He was dressed up,'' Wood said. ``He had a white shirt 
     and black coat and black tie. The gloves, he had white gloves 
     on his hands. Every gun there on through the center of the 
     island opened up on him. He was shot down.''
       The Battle of Midway, a decisive victory for the United 
     States and a turning point in the Pacific theater during 
     World War II, came just six months after the attacks on Pearl 
     Harbor--a battle Wood witnessed, rifle in hand.


                IT WAS SOMETHING TO DO FOR A LIVELIHOOD

       Wood, 92, was born in Montgomery County, near Troy. He grew 
     up in Lee County with his parents, John Lee Wood and Nancy 
     Phillips Wood, and two brothers, Malphus and Thomas.
       ``My first school was the old McIver Street School, and 
     Edna St. Clair was my teacher,'' he said. ``When I was 
     finished over at McIver Street, I started over at the high 
     school and that was in 1934.''
       Wood spent two years in the Civilian Conservation Corps--a 
     public-relief program meant to relieve families who faced 
     difficulties during the Great Depression--before enlisting in 
     the Marine Corps in 1941.
       ``I really didn't have anything else to do at the time,'' 
     he said. ``At the time I enlisted, it was something to do for 
     a livelihood. And

[[Page S8045]]

     I had a brother already in the Marine Corps.''
       Wood joined the 4th Defense Battalion as a radio and radar 
     operator, traveling to Cuba, Panama, and along the west coast 
     of the United States. The day after his 21st birthday, aboard 
     the U.S.S. Henderson, Wood left San Diego and arrived at 
     Pearl Harbor on Dec. 1, 1941.
       ``We were there a week when the Japanese attacked Pearl 
     Harbor and Hickam Field,'' he said.


                              PEARL HARBOR

       Wood was stationed two miles from the entrance of Pearl 
     Harbor at an unfinished Marine base. The battalion's rifles 
     were still crated up when Imperial planes began to fire.
       ``We were still close enough to Pearl Harbor to see when 
     the Japanese planes began to attack,'' he said. ``In Hickam 
     Field we could see all the anti-aircraft fire being fired at 
     the planes down in the harbor area. All the smoke and anti-
     aircraft fire burst around the planes.''
       There were murmurs among the men about military maneuvers 
     or exercises that quickly evaporated when the first plane 
     burst into a fireball, streaking down, he said.
       ``We got the call from the harbor that we were under 
     attack,'' Wood said. ``They tore the crates open, without any 
     regard if you got your own rifle. They gave us a bandolier 
     and told us to fire on anything that came into range. We got 
     our rifles but we weren't sure where we were going.''
       Only one Japanese plane, possibly taking pictures, Wood 
     said, came near his group.
       ``There was one Japanese plane that circled our camp area, 
     and he wasn't in range to be firing on,'' he said. ``But some 
     of the boys were firing rifles at it, and we did get a 
     machine gun, .50-caliber, and began firing at it, but the 
     plane was still too far away. It circled and went back in the 
     direction of Honolulu.''
       There were no causalities or injures in the 4th battalion, 
     but more than 2,000 Americans lost their lives and another 
     1,000 were injured. Shots were fired over their heads, Wood 
     said, and they were forced into a nearby mess hall--a 
     military cafeteria--to avoid the gunfire.
       ``It wasn't the Japanese,'' he said. ``It was our own 
     shells from some of our guns. We didn't know where it was 
     coming from . . . but I was lying there as close to the 
     ground as I could get and there was another boy lying eight 
     or 10 inches from my head. We both had our hands over our 
     heads, and finally they did quit firing and we just laid 
     there for a few seconds. We finally got the nerve to look up, 
     and we raised our heads at the same time. I looked at him, 
     and he looked at me. Neither of us spoke, but I noticed his 
     face was white as a sheet. I just wondered to myself if my 
     face was as white as his. That was my most uneasy moment of 
     it all.''
       The next day, Wood listened to the declaration of war from 
     President Franklin Roosevelt and preparations began for his 
     15-month tour at Midway as part of the 6th Defense.
       In 1943, he arrived home in Lee County sometime between 1 
     or 2 p.m., and said simply his parents were glad to see him.
       ``I was kinda glad to get back home, too,'' Wood said.
       He left the military in April 1947, moved to Kentucky and 
     worked at a radio station for more than 40 years. He married 
     the late Glindoln and had three children.
       Wood comes back to Central Carolina almost every summer for 
     a family reunion, he said.
       This Veterans Day, Wood said he'll be attending a ceremony 
     and meeting with the Kentucky Bluegrass Chapter of the Pearl 
     Harbor Survivors Association.
       ``I do think being at both of those two places, well, they 
     are important events in the military history of our 
     country,'' Wood said. ``I do feel a little bit of pride for 
     being at both of those events.''

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