Ilion High School - Class of 1943

The Ilion Sentinel - April 12, 1945

Young Soldier Dies in Battle

John Cole

Article 6

Ilion lost another of its young men this week with news of the death in action of Pfc. John W. Cole, 19, 30 West St., son of Mrs. Fannie Cole and the late Starr Cole. A War Department telegram said that he was killed in Germany on March 28.

The youth had been in military service since his graduation from Ilion high school in 1943 and had been in Europe since early this year. He went overseas in Jan.

He was well-known for his musical activities, playing the bass horn in the High School Band and being a member of the Cole Family Orchestra of a few years ago, which was made up of the late father, mother and four brothers.

After graduating from high school he joined the enlisted reserve while still 17 for training under the program at Auburn. He entered active service when he became 18 in February 1944, and trained at Camp Wheeler, Ga., and Camp Burner, N. C..

He was born in Little Falls but lived most of his life in Ilion, where he was a member of the Methodist church and Roosevelt Chapter, Order of DeMolay. He assisted in the family trucking business in his spare time.

Besides his mother, he leaves his four brothers, Pfc. Bradford with the ASF Band at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Starr, teacher at Farmingdale, L.I.; Arleigh at home, and Francis of Chepachet.