John Petty - Lieutenant Colonel

Biography

Year at ISU: 1927

Lieutenant Colonel John Clarence Petty was born in Adel, Iowa to Charles C. Petty and Mabel Spangler. His grandmother was Mrs. A.M. Spangler who lived in Ames, Iowa. He married Catherine Duncan in Adel, Iowa on May 26, 1928. She worked as a secretary and homemaker. At the time of his death, they had four daughters: Joan, Janet, Jean, and Jane, who were ages 16, 13, 10, and 10, respectively.

John had served with the 1st Brigade (Battalion?), 24th (34th?) Division, 168th infantry Regiment. He joined the Iowa National Guard in 1921 and re-enlisted at the expiration of each three-year term of service.

John died at a hospital in Gafsa, Tunisia on February 12, 1943. Two weeks earlier, he had been shot six times in the stomach by German machine gun fire and evacuated to the hospital. His regiment had suffered more than 150 casualties.