Posted by Jim Sullivan on July 16, 2010:

John Charles Abbott was born on September 1st, 1948. John died on 23 June, 2004, (Skip Pease's birthday), and E4 was the poorer for his loss. He was our Blueberry Buddy. I miss him. I remember him sleeping at his classroom desk, very much at home with that activity, in that place, and drooling and snoring away. And the Beast memories of John, bleeding from 1000 small shaving wounds, wearing a gas mask with Mozoski and Barth in Beast because they didn't have time to brush their teeth. And the classroom memories, John plastering his asleep face against the Calculus board and letting a lazy trail of saliva flow through the chalkdust on the slate, leaving a tell-tale spoor on the board. He was easy to track. But what I really remember is how sweet a guy he was. He was a really gentle soul, a gentleman, and he had a truly gentle heart, and I still love him for it. May God rest his warm heart and decent soul. He gave us a lot of good companionship. I don't think I ever saw him utter a harsh word. And that laugh of his was truly infectious. I was honored to serve next to him on the border, in the 3rd ID, and he was a very good soldier, a tanker. We froze our butts off looking across into Czechoslovakia. Ed used to come to our close-to-the-border town, too, and miserable as it was, we had a blast. We drank some, too, and watched a little Schweinchen Dick on the very limited tube. Ah, NATO. John died in a one car accident in Hopkinton, MA on 23 Jun 04. I don't know any more than that. I believe I heard, maybe his beautiful and dear wife Margaret said it, that he had a heart attack. I will always remember 1 Sep, his birthday, because I had a heart attack that day, just like Abbott's mother probably did when she saw his face. Boy, that guy had a tough beard, didn't he? And that's where the name Blueberry came from. His Beast squad leader, Harger, I think, used to scream, "Abbott, you lose more blood shaving than I've given to the Red Cross in two years." Anyway, here's to John Charles Abbott, of Connecticut, our good friend, the only one of us from E4 gone, and gone too early, the salt of the earth- a wonderful man. So I offer up this prayer for the Blueberry: " Please, God, take care of our buddy and hold him in Your Big Hand. He was part of E4, Your favorite outfit. Amen." Love, Easy Company

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