John Walter Ehle

He helped clear boiler fires amid scalding steam below decks

John Walter Ehle, a native of Kearney, Nebraska, served as a fireman first class aboard USS Concord during the Spanish-American War. He was present aboard the gunboat during the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898. Off Cavite in Manila Bay on May 21, 1898, a boiler manhole joint blew out. He helped remove the fires in a dangerously hot, vapor-filled fireroom while water was sprayed inside to make the work possible.

That conduct earned Ehle the Medal of Honor under the order of 14 December 1898. His naval service also qualified him for the Dewey Medal and, under the later expanded Navy criteria, the Spanish Campaign Medal. Born in Kearney, Nebraska, on May 11, 1873, he died in San Francisco on July 25, 1927. He was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Oakland, California.

Medal of Honor citation

On board the U.S.S. Concord off Cavite, Manila Bay, P.I., 21 May 1898. Following the blowing-out of a lower manhole plate joint on boiler B of that vessel, Ehle assisted in hauling the fires in the hot, vapor-filled atmosphere, which necessitated the playing of water into the fireroom from a hose.