deaths
August 25, 1945
John Birch, American soldier and missionary (born 1918)

John Birch (missionary)
John Morrison Birch was a United States Army Air Forces military intelligence captain, OSS field agent in China during World War II, as well as former Baptist minister and missionary. He was killed in a confrontation with Chinese Communist soldiers during an assignment he was ordered on by the OSS, ten days after the war ended. Birch was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal.