John F. Gatens Jr. was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, on August 9, 1923, and immigrated to the US with his family when he was three years old. He was living in Patterson, New Jersey when he was drafted in 1942. He served as a corporal with Battery A, 589th Field Artillery Battalion, 106th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for four months at "Stalag XIIA" a German prison camp in Limburg, Germany.

FROM FIND A GRAVE:John Francis Gatens; John Francis Gatens, 91, of Fair Lawn, NJ passed on Monday, May 11, 2015 at home surrounded by his loving family. Born in Port Glasgow (Port Ghlaschu), Scotland, he immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of two settling in Paterson before moving to Fair Lawn 64 years ago. John Gatens, taken prisoner by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, was venerated in Belgium, the country he and his comrades liberated. Mr. Gatens served as a gunner corporal on a 105mm howitzer in the 106th Infantry. Days after his division arrived at the Belgian-German frontier in December 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive that would be known as the Battle of the Bulge. At the outset, Mr. Gatens destroyed a leading German tank with direct fire from his howitzer; days later, he held off the Germans at a key crossroads, according to Carl Wouters, the Belgian chapter president of the 106th Infantry Division Association. The crossroads fell, and “when I saw the German army advancing, I ran into a farmhouse where our soldiers were warming up to get them out and hold the German forces back,” Mr. Gatens said last year in an interview with the Suburban News. “They began to bomb us. The German officer said I had a choice to surrender or get shot. There are no heroes when you are looking at a tank taking aim at you.” On the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, a vintage U.S. howitzer was placed at the Baraque de Fraiture crossroads to honor the Americans who fought the Germans there. It is known as “Gatens’ gun. Mr. Gatens stayed in touch with the Belgian family that owns the farmhouse/inn where he was taken prisoner. “John very openly talked about his experiences as a GI in battle and as a prisoner of war and truly embodied the best of what Tom Brokaw called so fittingly the Greatest Generation,”. “He has many friends all over the world who will dearly miss him, but who will never forget him and his powerful story.” A proud veteran of the U.S. Army serving during World War II, he became a prisoner of war during the Battle of the Bulge and was a member of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge of the Picatinny Arsenal in Jefferson Township. Three years ago, Mr. Gatens honored his fallen comrades at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium. “Right now, it is sad because tonight, when I fall asleep — if I fall asleep — memories start coming back,” he said in remarks posted on the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission. “ … The average age under these stones is 24 years old. It hurts me. The only thing I’m glad about is that I am not under one of them.” Mr. Gatens was a parishioner of St. Philip the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Saddle Brook and a member of the Jersey Dreamer Social Club. An avid baseball player in his younger years, John enjoyed bowling, golfing and traveling. Prior to retiring, he was a draftsman with Singer Kearfott in Little Falls for more than 30 years.