John W. Jolley

Jolley was a street-smart young man with a knack for getting into trouble before he joined the Marines Corps, a sister recalled. Too young to enlist legally, be dropped out of Thomas Edison High School in October 1965 and used the birth date on a baptismal certificate of a sister a year older than himself in order to join up without parental permission. Jolley trained as a rifleman and volunteered for duty in Vietnam, where he was assigned to Company A of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, The private first class died Sept. 21, 1966, at Kim Dien, Quang Nam Province. He was 19 years old. Survivors included. his parents, a brother and three sisters. Jolley was one of at least 11 young men from the Fishtown-Kensington-Port Richmond neighbor-hoods to die or be missing in Vietnam. All are honored on the Cpl. Charles J. Glenn 3rd Memorial in Fishtown, dedicated in 1967 and one of the first memorials to Vietnam veterans in the United States.