- November 7, 2025
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East County's John Skeen, who died Oct. 21 at 107, had the bronze star, the purple heart, and he had been knighted into France's Order of the Legion of Honor.
Oh, the stories he could tell about his service with the U.S. Army's 70th Infantry Division during World War II.
He just didn't — at least when it came to talking about himself.
Skeen didn't talk much about his own exploits because he wanted to recount the bravery of the soldiers all around him, especially those who didn't come back.
But there was this one story, when pushed, he would share.
Days before he died, he told the story once again to Rich Koch, who became friends with Skeen over the years at a weekly veterans' breakfast meeting at the Bob Evans restaurant off State Road 70 in Bradenton.
"Despite all the killing that man went through, he had a kind heart," said Koch, an Air Force veteran who served as a crew chief on a C-130 Hercules aircraft in Vietnam. "I was with John until the very end, and we discussed (Skeen's story) one more time.
"It was February 1945 and he was going through a town in France that had just been shelled. John (a sergeant) came across this woman, bleeding profusely, half-naked, and holding a baby in her arms. He turned around and gave this woman his overcoat."
The U.S. solders were fighting in bitter cold at the time so every article of clothing could have meant the difference between life and death.
Skeen went forward with his fellow soldiers, and the Germans eventually surrendered in May of that year.
The years passed, and Skeen would meet on occasion with others from the 70th Infantry Division.
"It was 1982 and the 70th went back to France for a reunion," Koch said. "They were called the 'Trailblazers.' John told me how the French people were always so good to him, and they would hold these celebrations. That year, they had this big banquet. During the banquet, the mayor of the town called John up front — and all this is documented — then the mayor called up this woman from the back of the hall.
"She was the child who was in the arms of the woman who John helped. She told him, 'You saved my life.' Her mother, who had passed, often told her stories about the kind American who had given her his coat."
Koch said 128 people showed up at Skeen's 107th birthday party at the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital Oct. 3. It was three times the amount they expected.
"For one thing, he was honest," Koch said of Skeen. "And he had a knack of making you feel that you were there with him."
But the stories almost always were about his fellow soldiers.
"He would say, 'I don't want them to forget my men, the price that was paid.'" Koch said.
Army Lt. Col. Kevin Wright was among those who attended the birthday celebration.
"His mind was sharp, but his body quit on him," Wright said. "He was so amazingly humble. I told him, 'My faith, my family, my marriage, my love of country, all are stronger for having been your friend."
Ray Brown's late father, Rich Brown, fought alongside Skeen in World War II. When Skeen and his dad became friends long after the war ended, Ray Brown got to know Skeen as well.
"My father didn't find out John was still alive until 1977," Ray Brown said. "He thought he was killed in action."
Ray Brown, who lives in Weirsdale, heard the stories from his father about the horrific battle in Philippsbourg, France, which involved the last major German offensive as they attacked through the Vosges Mountains early in 1945.
"They were outnumbered six-to-one," Ray Brown said of the U.S. troops that included Skeen and his father. "It was bitter cold, and John lost a lot of guys. You know, John remembered every soldier who was killed. He could still hear their voices like they were here. He never forgot them."
Ray Brown has an original World War II Jeep that he uses in veterans' parades. He started to bring the Jeep to the Manatee County Veterans Day Parade so that Steen could ride in it.
Being a war hero was only one part of Skeen's long life. He had a wife, Bea (who died in 2008), of 66 years, and two children, Anita Skeen and Greg Skeen.
"We shared a love of sports and the outdoors," Anita Skeen said. "I had fond memories of going to baseball games with Daddy. He said he only took me to baseball games because he wanted to buy hot dogs. And one of the greatest gifts we received from my parents was a love of travel. We would go camping and Daddy and I always would put up the tent and get firewood."
Anita Skeen said her father could fix anything.
"My parents never hired a repair person," she said. "They taught me self-reliance."
Since she was born in 1946, Anita Skeen didn't have any memories of her father from before World War II.
"It always amazed me, but he did not talk about war until he reconnected with his old unit, the Trailblazers," she said. "We grew up in rural West Virginia and there were no guns in the house. He was not interested in anything with any kind of violence.
"His Army jacket hung in the front closet, but I don't remember him ever wearing it ... but I knew it was there."
War was horrifying to Skeen, who was quoted in an East County Observer feature in 2023: "One of the things I took away from the war was the terrible destruction all around. Everything was obliterated. Building after building. The trees looked like telephone poles with no leaves. Cows, horses dead. The carnage, the smell."
Skeen became more active in veterans' events after he turned 100 because he said nobody was left to tell the stories. He regularly rode in Lakewood Ranch's Tribute to Heroes Parade along with the Manatee County Veterans Parade.
"John said the secret to life was that he never chased fast women, he didn't drink, and he ate every piece of chocolate he could get his hands on," Ray Brown said. "One of his stories was that he and his men were pinned down in the Vosges Mountains (in eastern France near the border of Germany). He had collected all these Hershey bars and had them in his backpack. They ran out of food to eat and his men were eating snow, so John handed out the candy bars. It got them through."
