When you think of a guy is a member of his high school orchestra, string ensemble, chess club, and magic club, and who goes on to become a world-class flautist with the San Diego Symphony, you may think of someone with many talents, but you probably don’t automatically think “war hero.” You probably also don’t picture the leading-man-type of guy you see pictured above. But George H. Cannon, a graduate of Detroit's Southeastern High School's class of 1932, was all of those things.
Hollywood-handsome, ambitious, adept at everything he tried, and extremely well-liked, George H. Cannon had no questions about his character, his interests, his loyalties, or his priorities.
Forgetting the high school rap sheet I just listed off, you can get a better picture of George Cannon from his older brother, Ben, in this letter to the U.S. Marine Corps on February 3, 1942:
“He joined the Marines in 1938 because of a genuine fear for the safety of his and our country, and never once did he falter from taking steps which both of us knew would probably end this way. In selecting the Pacific area last year, he went where he thought the danger was greatest. He once told me that the small Pacific islands would probably be taken if the [Japanese] decided to make them major objectives, and that the job of the Marines would be to tear as big a hole s possible in the Japanese Navy when they tried it.
“When I saw him in San Diego last summer my heart turned as heavy as lead because I knew I would never see him again. Even if it hadn’t happened at Midway, it would have been somewhere else, because he was bound to mix it up with them until he fell, dragging a dozen with him. I was worried until the Washington dispatch disclosed that two [Japanese] warships were damaged, but now I know that a point blank blast from their guns couldn’t drive him from his post or keep him from getting his dozen.”
Today is Medal of Honor Day, and this newsletter is dedicated to 1
st LT George Ham Cannon of Detroit, Michigan, who died heroically on December 7, 1941 off Midway Island, during the coordinated attacks on Pearl Harbor. I hope you will
click through to my web site and read my full blog post about George Cannon in remembrance on Medal of Honor Day.
To honor their sacrifice,
--Bill
