Louisville WWII veteran John Lawton soon to turn 100

Louisville resident John Lawton created the first avalanche rescue transceiver, escaped Vienna after Kristallnacht, fought with the U.S. Army during World War II and will turn 100 June 3.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., visited Lawton on Tuesday to honor him with a flag that was flown over the Capitol and thank him for his service. Neguse said he would love to have Lawton share his story with local high school students as a way to hear real stories of WWII.

“He’s living history,” Neguse said.

Lawton joked and said that is out of his control; he will simply turn 100 years old.

“I don’t intend to make a big ‘to-do’ about it, but I think it’s gonna be the biggest birthday bash I’ve had in a while,” Lawton said.

His son, Mark Lawton, said his father is the eldest son of a Jewish shopkeeper. John Lawton and his father had to hide in that shop during Kristallnacht in Austria, Mark Lawton said. John Lawton said his parents never told him the full details, just that they managed to flee to England before the war started.

“There was a guy named Adolf Hitler, and he didn’t like the Jews. So we figured it was time to leave,” John Lawton joked.

John Lawton was in the United States for the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He said shortly after that he tried to enlist for the U.S. Army., but he was turned away because he was not an American citizen. However, three months later he was drafted. John Lawton said at that point he was made a citizen so he could join the war effort.

John Lawton served in a reconnaissance team in the 91st Infantry Division, and spent most of the war in Northern Africa and in Italy.

Instead of trying to recall specific moments from the war, he said would share his “close calls.” In written documents he shared, he revealed that on his first reconnaissance mission, his group became disoriented while walking through the woods. His group saw other soldiers, so they were going to ask them for help locating themselves. His group gave up on speaking with them after they received fire. It was only a few moments later that John Lawton and his group became aware they were about to ask German soldiers for help. It was also during this mission that John Lawton learned the difference between American and German footprints.

“I could look for two seconds and tell you if it was a German shoe or an American shoe. Not that the feet are different, but the boots are different,” John Lawton said.

He said he found it interesting that he could tell the difference so clearly by the shoeprints, but no one but him seemed to care.

Beth Lawton, John Lawton’s wife, said he got a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University despite never graduating from high school. He said he lasted one week in high school in New York because he already knew everything they were teaching.

John Lawton said his proudest creation is a transceiver called Skadi. He used it on a ski patrol team in Buffalo, New York, when he would regularly have to look for lost people on mountains. His ski patrol team would use a long pole with teeth on the end to poke down to look for people. However, he came up with a better idea. He invented the first avalanche transceiver, which made it easier to find people in the snow. He said it worked quite simply.

“As you get closer with the receiver to the transmitter, the signal gets louder, and that’s how you find it,” John Lawton said.

John Lawton said Skadi has saved thousands of lives. By simply going where the transceiver gets louder, many people could be found. He laughed and shared that he knows someone who was rescued with the help of a Skadi transceiver three separate times.

Joyce Parella, John Lawton’s daughter, said that her dad has always just been her dad.

“He’s pretty tough,” Parella said

She said it feels incredible that he will be turning 100 years old soon, as he recently underwent two femur surgeries. She added that the best thing about being his daughter is how smart he is.