Junior J. Spurrier

Spurrier was born on December 14, 1922, in the Castlewood area of Russell County, western Virginia to farmer and Norfolk and Western Railway locomotive fireman and engineer James I. Spurrier and his wife Ruby, one of five children. The family suffered due to the Great Depression, moving frequently, and ended up in Bluefield, West Virginia, where the younger Spurrier found work in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp.[4] His mother died in the summer of 1940, and he decided to enlist in the Army.[5]

By the fall of 1940, Spurrier was living in Wise County, Virginia. On September 25, 1940, he voluntarily enlisted into the United States Army from Richmond, Virginia. Spurrier filled his name in the wrong blanks in his enlistment paperwork, and became known to the Army throughout his time in service as "Junior J. Spurrier."

Sent overseas on April 20, 1942, he first served in the infantry in the Pacific Theater. Injured in New Guinea in late 1943, he was returned to the United States for medical treatment, first to Camp Carson, Colorado, then to San Francisco, California.[6][7] Deemed fit for duty, Spurrier was sent overseas again in June 1944 at his own request. He was eventually assigned to Company G of the 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, as a replacement private on July 19, 1944. On July 26, 1944, he was promoted to staff sergeant and became a messenger and scout. On September 16, 1944, near Lay-Saint-Christophe, France, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for spearheading an assault on a stubbornly-defended hill position. While twice positioning himself on an American tank destroyer, Spurrier used its .50 caliber machine gun to kill over a dozen German soldiers and force the surrender of twenty-two others. While fighting on the ground, he personally destroyed two enemy dugouts with hand grenades. Spurrier was awarded a Purple Heart for being wounded in action on September 21, 1944.

Spurrier was noted as an extraordinarily brave and independent prankster who often clashed with his commanders, and went absent without leave several times during his service. Discharged after World War II, he attempted to go into business and had a brief stint as a pitcher with the Galax Leafs of the Class D Blue Ridge League before re-enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1947. He was elevated to the rank of technical sergeant and placed on recruiting duty.[8][9] He had a severe problem with alcohol, and was demoted to the rank of private in 1950; Spurrier deserted his post during the Korean War and the Army gave him a general discharge in 1951 rather than court-martial him. Spurrier had a turbulent and remarkable life after the military. He had a difficult time adjusting to civilian life, possibly due to posttraumatic stress disorder, and had several run-ins with the law in Virginia and Maryland. He eventually served three jail sentences, including one for attempted murder, being released for the last time in 1969. Spurrier became a teetotaler, ran a radio and television repair business, and retired to a cabin in eastern Tennessee, where he died in relative obscurity on February 25, 1984, at the age of 61. He is buried in Mountain Home National Cemetery (Section HH, Row 15, Grave 8), in Johnson City, Tennessee.[10]

A memorial to Spurrier was dedicated at the Mercer County War Museum on July 2, 2006.[11] Several of Spurrier's original awards were believed lost, but were located in November 2011 by Granville, West Virginia, police chief Craig Corkrean, in a safe belonging to his late father. Spurrier's Medal of Honor and other medals were presented to his two surviving sisters in a ceremony held on December 2, 2011.[12][13]

• List of Medal of Honor recipients

1.^ Conflicting information exists as to Junior J. Spurrier's early life and his date and place of enlistment into the military. Official United States Army enlistment records state that Spurrier's place of residence in September 1940 was Wise County, Virginia and that he voluntarily enlisted at Richmond, Virginia, on September 25, 1940. General orders from the 35th Infantry Division for the award of Spurrier's two Purple Hearts likewise say that he "entered military service" from Virginia. Conversely, Spurrier's Medal of Honor citation says that he was born in Russell County, Kentucky, and "entered service" at Riggs, Kentucky.

2.^ One Bluefield Daily Telegraph article lists his service in the Pacific as twenty-two months, while another says thirty-one months; the latter may be his service in the Army as a whole up to the point when he returned to the United States.