James Landon Ragan served on the U.S.S. Bowers (DE-637)
Plain Talk and Tribune, Sept. 25, 1950
Mrs. Fred Matthews of Black Mountain, N.C. has been notified by the Navy Department that the body of her son, James Landon Ragan, Seaman First Class, has been recovered and identified on Okinawa. This ends an investigation which began three years ago when a former crew member of the U.S. Bowers o which young Ragan lost his life in April of 1945, came to see Mrs. Matthews and reported that he knew her son was buried on Okinawa, because he helped remove the dead from the ship after it had been attacked by a Japanese Suicide plane on April 16, 1945.
Ragan attended schools in Black Mountain and Hickory, N.C., before enlisting in the Navy in 1943. He went to sea in 1944 and participated in four battles. He was born in parrottsville and lived there as a child. He is survived by his paternal grandmother, Mrs. L.B. Ragan of Parrottsville.
- Rank: Seaman First Class
- Date of birth: 9 June 1929
- Date of death: 16 April 1945
- County: Cocke
- Hometown: Newport
- Service Branch: Navy
- Division/Assignment: USS Bowers (DE-637)
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Forest Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Parrottsville, Cocke County, , TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar VIII, Middle Panel
- Contact us to sponsor James L. Ragan
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