Quick Quiz #34

34) On March 28, 1941, following his junior season as a member of the Coaldale Football Tigers, John Katchak enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Eight months later on December 7, 1941--as the Empire of Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor--Private John Katchak was on Wake Island, a U.S. island in the Pacific Ocean, when the Japanese launched an attack on that island. What happened to John that day is described on pages 95 and 96 in a book by Duane Schulz titled "Wake Island: The Heroic Gallant Fight": "Private John Katchak, nineteen years old, was the first member of the marine defense battalion to die. A bomb had fallen on the edge of his foxhole and turned it into his grave. His buddies built up a small mound over what had been the foxhole and placed some chunks of coral on it. When they finished, they gathered around and quietly murmured the Lord's Prayer."

John was later honored by the members of Coaldale's Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 6982 by having his name forever linked with fellow Coaldale Tiger football player George Stembrosky.