John F. Hartle
14 May 1938-
27 June 2023

Honor Ceremony conducted 29 June 2023 at Adventist Cemetery outside Korat. John was born in Jackson, Michigan; but, moved to the southern US shortly after. He was patriot at heart, two days after his 16th birthday, he joined the Army. He served 4.5 years and was on a ship with 1000 other troops to the Korean War when a truce was signed. He couldn't get any records for that time period because of a fire that burned his and many other veteran's records! After being discharged from the Army, he went to college for a year, saw his son born, and joined the Coast Guard, from which he retired as a E7. He would share his tails of serving in the Coast Guard with everyone he knew because he was proud of his time of service. Yes, John was a story teller and they were always fun, colorful, relevant to the time and place he experienced it. One story was of the Coast Guard Commander that died and John was assigned to help the commander's widow as she was worried that she could lose her house. John was a student of people and he knew the commander well and helped the widow find over $16,000 rat-holed in the commander's belongings and living quarters. John lived in the Philippines for a few years and got mixed in with some very bad people. He had to leave quickly or be killed. So, he caught the first flight out to escape the hit put on him. He ended up in Bangkok, Thailand. He met Nui his wife and came to faith in Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior which established the direction for the rest of his life. Together, John and his wife Nui, acquired large areas of land for growing food. Some of it being used for organic production. They expanded their house to serve the Lord in holding worship services, Sunday schools, Bible Studies, and many other events, to serve with others foremost in mind. John loved to do things that made him happy like, playing the guitar or piano, studying Thai language and the Bible, building a large fish pond in the back and growing fish in many specialized tanks. Like I told him a week, or so, before he died, that whenever I came to visit his home it was full of interesting things he was working on and always with purpose. John told me then he was going to make a comeback and surprise his doctors and nursing staff. That was John. -- Past Post Commander Wm. Chapman