Moran honors soldier whose remains identified in Senate speech

WASHINGTON (KSNW) – Kansas Senator Jerry Moran spoke on the Senate floor Friday.

Moran spoke about the Memorial Day holiday and his own late father, a World War II veteran. Senator Moran also spoke about Sgt. John O. Herrick of Emporia, Kansas.

Sgt. Herrick was assigned to the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion. On June 6, 1944, Sgt. Herrick was among 200 U.S. Coast Guard soldiers and 25 crew members aboard a landing craft, approaching Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day.

According to the Defense POW/MIA accounting agency, the ship was hit by enemy mortars and shells before hitting a mine, igniting fuel in the forward troop compartment, instantly killing the men inside.

The remains of the soldiers in the compartment were eventually found, but remain unidentified. They were buried as unknown in the Normandy American Cemetery. In 2021, the unidentified remains were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis.

The lab was able to identify one set as belonging to Sgt. Herrick in August 2023. Sgt. Herrick's remains will be returned to Kansas and a memorial service will be held on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

Congressman Ed Rees of Emporia introduced the bill creating Veterans Day, which was signed into law by World War II general Kansan and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954.