thursday

september 12, 2024

pebble brook golf club

noblesville, indiana

tournament sponsors

Sergeant John Kenneth Rankel was born on July 28, 1986 ​in Anderson, IN, to Trisha Stockhoff and Kevin Rankel.

John displayed an affinity toward equipment and the ​military at a very young age. His favorite sports were ​sports that required equipment (football and baseball). ​He also loved GI Joes and had quite a collection of both ​the miniature and larger figures.

John attended Speedway schools during his elementary ​years, moved to the Center Grove schools for his middle ​school years and returned to Speedway for his junior and ​senior years , graduating from Speedway High School in ​2005. Throughout school he was a very good student, but ​like a lot of teenagers tended to “slack off” a bit in his ​early high school years. Returning to Speedway, he began ​to realize again the importance of academics, and ​finished high school with an overall GPA of 3.5.

He was heavily involved in athletics his entire life, playing ​little league baseball, bantam football and youth ​basketball. He even tried competitive swimming for a ​time as well as wrestling. He began to realize in 8th grade ​that he could excel in football and began a serious effort ​to become a defensive and offensive lineman the ​following summer. He played for both Center Grove and ​the Speedway football teams (two schools with big ​football traditions) and won all-state honorable mention ​at the end of his junior year. In addition to football, he ​decided during his senior year in high school to try out ​for both the Speedway basketball and baseball teams. He ​made both, and although not a star for either, made ​significant contributions to each team in the area of ​senior leadership.

John was a freshman in high school when the terrorist ​attacks of September 11, 2001 took place. This day had a ​profound impact on him, although he did not display this ​outwardly. He broached the subject of joining the military ​to his parents a few times after 9/11, but they resisted ​any serious discussions, re-directing the conversation to ​college choices. This did not detract him however, as he ​pursued discussions with USMC recruiters, with serious ​discussions taking place during the first semester of his ​senior year came to a close. Despite his parents’ ​reservations, he signed enlistment papers to join the U.S. ​Marine Corps on December 27, 2004.

Following graduation, he jumped on a bus on August 8, ​2005 to San Diego for boot camp. Some three months ​later he graduated boot camp with honors, being ​promoted to Private First Class. From boot camp, he ​attended the School of Infantry and several other ​military courses before he deployed with the 1/4 Marines ​of Iraq in 2007 as a part Operation Iraqi Freedom. His ​superiors during this tour recall a mature young man ​wanting to do whatever it took to make himself and his ​fellow Marines better. As a result, this newly promoted ​corporal was assigned to be the crew leader of a Humvee, ​which was relatively unheard of for someone without ​combat experience. John performed admirably in this ​role.

He deployed once more to Iraq in 2008, as a member of a ​sniper team. Once in country, he learned there were more ​sniper teams than was necessary; as a result his role in ​his last Iraqi deployment was more of a support function. ​This caused him to be a bit disillusioned to the point ​where he was considering leaving the Marine Corps at the ​end of his four year enlistment. However, the dream of ​becoming an infantry squad leader was still on his mind, ​and he re-enlisted in 2009, with the understanding he ​would redeploy with the 1/4 Marines to Afghanistan. ​Shortly after re-enlistment , John was promoted to ​Sergeant at the age of 23.

Shortly after re-enlisting, Sergeant Rankel learned that ​the 1/4 Marines would not be deploying to Afghanistan as ​originally planned. Therefore he set out to seek a transfer ​to a unit that would be deploying, and was re-assigned to ​3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I ​Marine Expeditionary Force in December of 2009.

Although the 3/1 Marines had already begun their training ​for their upcoming mission, they welcomed Sergeant ​Rankel and immediately recognized the talents and skills ​he would bring to the unit. He received excellent fitness ​reports from his commanding officers after serving only a ​short time with 3/1. He was also assigned a rifle squad ​which was his ultimate goal when he joined the Marines-​he wanted to lead men.

On June 7, 2010, Sgt. Rankel was leading two rifle squads ​when the lead unit came under enemy ambush. He ran ​600 meters to come to the aid of the lead unit, who were ​pinned down with only a few haystacks for cover. Sgt. ​Rankel led an aggressive effort to return fire and ​therefore prevented the unit from being overwhelmed by ​a much larger enemy force. Upon being ordered to fall ​back to allow an artillery assault on the enemy position, ​he selflessly remained at the area of attack, ordering his ​fellow Marines to fall back while he provided covering ​fire. With all of his fellow Marines out of immediate ​danger, he himself attempted to fall back when he was ​mortally wounded.

For his actions that day, Sgt. Rankel received the Purple ​Heart and the Bronze Star with Valor. He has also ​received the Afghanistan Campaign Medal as well as the ​NATO Defense Medal posthumously. Other awards John ​earned included multiple Combat Action Ribbons, the ​Marine Corp Good Conduct Medal, the Iraq Campaign ​Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and the ​Global War on Terrorism and National Defense Service ​Medals during his first tour as well as three individual ​Certificates of Commendation. He was posthumously ​inducted into the Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame ​in 2018.

Sgt. Rankel is buried in the Field of Valor at Crown Hill ​Cemetery in Indianapolis.

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