Civil War ☆ WWI ☆ WWII ☆ Korea ☆ Vietnam ☆ Iraq I ☆ Iraq II ☆ Afghanistan
| Name | Narrative | Branch and Rank | Unit and Specialty | Conflict/Arena | Born/Died |
| John E. Crowther, Jr. | John Edward Crowther, Jr. was born in 1904. He married met and married Helen, originally of Virginia, in Delanco. The family lived at 700 Railroad Avenue in Delanco. When WWII got under way, John was 38 and lied about his age to enlist in the US Navy in 1942. He served aboard the new light aircraft carrier USS Independence from when it was launched at New York Ship in Philadelphia, through the Panama Canal and into the South Pacific. It was engaged in the battles of Leyte Gulf and Tarawa, where it was torpedoed by Japanese aircraft. John was working below decks when the explosion occurred, but he escaped and managed to save two of his companions from the flooding compartment. John was badly burned in the incident. He returned with the ship to San Francisco and decided to stay with the ship while it was being repaired January to June of 1944. He worked as a prison guard at a German prisoner of war camp in California. He sailed with the Independence when it redeployed to the South Pacific and recalls sailing into Pearl Harbor and seeing the damage still evident from the Japanese raid. He served until VJ Day, August 15, 1945, then returned to Delanco and worked several jobs in the Delanco-Riverside area. He also worked for SEPTA in Philadelphia. John died in 1979. Helen died in 1983. They are buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Burlington. | US Navy, CPO | USS Independence (LCS-2) | WWII | 1904 – 1979 |
Updated October 30, 2023