John McKinley Dunning Jr.

To My Family & Friends

“I am the oldest grandson of John Earl Parker and Laura Myrtal Barker. The second generation John in the family was John Dunning and his wife Loudine Seagraves Dunning Metros. My father was John McKinley Dunning Sr. and my mother was Doris Maxine Parker. This is a testament for my brother Jim, my half-sister Loudine Moore and my cousins and all their children.

My time on this earth is nearing its end. My homes were first on Hercules Avenue in Evansville, Indiana, then Carmine and rural Crossville, Illinois and lastly Haubstadt, Indiana near Evansville.

My education was not a good experience filled with judgements by my Elders who were supposed to be my teachers or mentors. What I learned from this was an intense dislike of mathematics and in learning about history, I came to understand the stupidities of my fellow man and our laws. So, through these people I was guided into joining the Navy after having heard President Kennedy’s speech about what you can do for your country.

The Navy became the learning experience of my life, where I was taught that your freedom is owned by your government who are supposed to know right from wrong. After boot camp I had sea duty on a ship that carried helicopters and thousands of sailors and marines across the Pacific Ocean to a war. I gained 14 weeks of intensive medical knowledge in Hospital Corps School, then had four weeks of Field Medical Service with the Marines. I then spent 13 months in a Naval hospital and my last duty was 13 months in Vietnam. I learned there that our country’s leaders were willing to sacrifice 2 million of their young to fight communism.

Back to Haubstadt, I spent 5 years with my war experiences locked inside me so deep that I then joined friends in Colorado. Here I met and married my wife Linda Madsen, my past turning into concrete memories of war and visions of battle dressing young men telling them that they would see their mothers again when I wasn’t sure this was true.

So, brother, sister, cousins, nieces and nephews, my love of everyone of you must be related to you soon, as I will not be here to clutter your minds with my life story.”

John McKinley Dunning completed his training in printing school and worked in printing for several years. He loved to read, write, draw, cook, tell his many stories and was constantly studying military and Native American history. He attended 5 different colleges but never quite finished at any of them. He was a basketball and baseball star in high school and grew up hunting and fishing in the woods. He was also a crack shot and had a long-lasting hobby of building model ships and military figures from many different eras of history. He won awards for both his marksmanship and his military figures. He also did a little re-enactor and extra work, in a couple of historical movies.

John was a very honest and moral, sensitive, compassionate and creative human being, who died peacefully in his sleep after a several year battle with a rare blood disorder which he probably got, due to his exposure to toxic chemicals while serving his country.