Mr. Thrasher fought in the Coral Sea Battle, the Battle of Midway, where he was on the USS Yorktown when it went down, and he served in the Philippines. During his military service, Wendell received the America Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Medal with four bronze stars, the World War II Victory Medal, Philippine Liberation Ribbon, and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. After being honorably discharged, he was involved in the Yorktown CV-5, the Battle of Midway, and the Coral Sea Battle Reunions. In 2014 and 2015, Wendell was honored in the Battle of Midway Commemorations in St. Augustine, Florida for his distinguished service. He was also honored at the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea Commemoration held in New York City in 2017 for his distinguished service. While there, he was honored by the Prime Minister of Australia and had dinner with the President of the United States and several other distinguished guests.

Wendell Earl Thrasher, 92, passed away on August 4, 2017 at his home in Moulton, Mississippi.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOULTON, MS - As a know-it-all teenager in September 1941, Wendell Earl Thrasher ignored his mother's warning about the possibility of seeing combat if he enlisted in the Navy.

Thrasher quit school as a junior and went into the service at 17, only to get caught up in the action after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor three months later.

Now 81, Thrasher returned to Lawrence County High School on Thursday for a ceremony where he finally received a high school diploma through a special program to award them to World War II veterans.

His stepgrandson, Jake Farris, was a member of the regular graduating class.

"I think it's cool," Farris said. "Not many people get to graduate with a grandpa."

After leaving school, Thrasher went on to see action that included the Battle of the Coral Sea aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in May 1942. He recalled the flash of an explosion that killed all the sailors in a gun position yet spared him.

"When I came to, they had me piled up with the dead," he told The Decatur Daily. "Someone was washing us with saltwater to get the blood off. I was as bloody as they were and not a scratch on me."

After his release from the Navy, Thrasher helped construct silos at a flour mill in Decatur, and he eventually left Alabama to find work in Northern paper mills.

He moved back to Lawrence County in the 1960s, bought a convenience store and farmed while working swing shifts at the Champion paper mill.

He retired from the mill in 1992.

Thrasher and his wife Ocille have five children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Thrasher said he never regretted ignoring his mother's advice to stay in school

"But when I saw the (Japanese) planes coming in, it was the first thing I thought about," Thrasher said.

Information from: The Decatur Daily