At first, he didn't want the medals he had earned as a rifleman in the Pacific Theater. John was born in Bernice, Louisiana. He enlisted in spring of 1943, and was sent to the Pacific as part of the Thirty-Fourth Regiment, Twenty-Fourth Infantry Division. In the invasion of Leyte in the Philippine Islands, he and Private Harold Moon fought off several Japanese attacks from their foxhole. Moon was killed in the night. The next morning, 193 enemy soldiers were found dead in front of their foxhole. For their bravery at Leyte, Moon was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously while John was offered the Distinguished Service Cross. He turned it down, but later accepted it, along with two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He was honorably discharged in November of 1945 as a private first class. John worked in commercial refrigeration throughout most of his career.