John P. McGovern

Private • U.S. Army • Serial 12049071

536th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion

Entered service from New Jersey • Died February 7, 1944

Buried at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Plot C Row 4 Grave 15, Nettuno, Italy

Private John P. McGovern was born in Pennsylvania in 1921 to Dennis J. and Veronica Kenney McGovern. In 1930 the family lived at 2538 Coral Street in Philadelphia PA, where Dennis McGovern worked as a yard man for a coal company; he had previously worked as a boiler fitter in a shipyard. The family later moved to Berlin Road, near Maple Avenue, in Lindenwold NJ. Besides John, there were three brothers—Joseph, James, and Dennis Jr.—and three sisters: Margaret, Anna, and Veronica McGovern. John McGovern worked at a chain grocery store before enlisting in the United States Army on July 6, 1942, at which time his father was working at New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden NJ.

John McGovern was assigned to the 536th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, and trained at Camp Stewart GA, prior to going overseas via the New York Port of Embarkation on April 27, 1943. His unit served in North Africa, on Gozo Island, on Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, and on Sicily. On January 10, 1944, the 536th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion landed in Italy at Anzio. Private John P. McGovern was killed in action on February 7, 1944. He was survived by his parents.