John Dee Lack is the son of Mr. & Mrs. John A. Lack of rural Prairietown, IL. John spent his early years in the nearby agricultural communities and attended nearby Burton School, leaving school after his fifteenth birthday. John found employment in Alton, IL at the Luer Brothers Meat Packing Company and remained there until he volunteered for ther U.S. Navy on Feb. 16,1943. John received his basic training at Farragut Naval Training Station, Idaho and was assigned as Fireman First Class John Dee Lack to the Fletcher-class destroyer, U.S.S. Hoel. F 1-c Lack returned home only once, in the summer of 1943, since his enlistment. The U.S.S. Hoel saw several engagements in the Pacific theater with the Japanese Navy and was sunk off of Samar Island, Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf when the U.S. flotilla engaged a superior force of Japanese warships. A granite monument is erected in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma, California near San Diego listing all the men that were lost at sea aboard the U.S.S. Hoel and two other American warships. Besides his parents, he is survived by four sisters, Juanita, Hazel, Noreda and Dolores and two brothers, Roy and Donald. Fireman First Class John Dee Lack was 18 years of age.
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