Petty Officer 3rd Class John Daniel House
Born Nov. 19, 1976 in Pennsylvania
(His family moved to California when he was 6.)
Died Jan. 26, 2005 in Ar Rutbah, Iraq
John was a Navy Medic assigned to Naval Medical Clinic Hawaii, Marine Corps Units Detachment, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in his seventh year of Naval service. He was killed in a helicopter crash that also took the lives of 30 United States Marines during his second tour of duty in the mid-east. John served with a strong bond between him and his troops. He worried about them constantly, fretting over loosing any of them. When John had left for Iraq the previous September, he left behind his wife of four years, Melanie, who was expecting their first child. John loved music and an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas had married him and Melanie during one of his leaves. On Christmas Eve 2004 their son was born and John witnessed the baby’s first cries on a videophone. They named their newborn son James Cash House; his middle name in honor of country singer Johnny Cash, a favorite of John’s. John had at one time thought he’d make the Navy a career, but after the birth of his son, whom he never got to hold, he had decided when he current enlistment was over in 2006 he would leave the military because combat was not an ideal profession for a him and his family. John was good-natured and had once told his family that “His parents made him out of love, the military made him a man and his wife made him whole.” Several men whom Doc House saved or treated in Iraq spoke of their admiration for him at his funeral. John never had any regrets about his service, and those who he patched up or saved will never forget him and what he sacrificed for them. Doc was survived his wife; son; parents Lawrence and Susan; sister Elizabeth and brother James.
John was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Simi Valley, California.
The Petty Officer 3rd Class John Daniel House by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
