Harry Reese John; Fought for Changes in Marines’ Training

Harry Reese John, 79, a World War II combat Marine who fought for changes at the Parris Island, S.C., boot camp after his son died there. In 1971, John’s son Warren, a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Towson State University, was hospitalized with 39 other members of his boot camp platoon at Parris Island. They suffered from “athlete’s kidney” caused by excessive exercise. Several weeks later and back on duty, the son collapsed and died after a long run and punitive pushups. John filed a $10-million lawsuit, later dropped, against the Marine Corps in 1977 and served as a leader for other families with accounts of deaths and injuries to recruits. Ultimately, Marine Commandant Gen. Louis M. Wilson ordered sweeping changes in Marine recruit training. John, who drove a beer truck in his civilian career, earned a Purple Heart for his actions as a Marine corporal in the invasions of Guadalcanal and Okinawa during World War II. On Tuesday in Baltimore, Md., of liver cancer.