John Avent was a Private in the 47th Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division in WWII. Enlisted at Ft. Bragg in December of 1943 and likely sent immediately to England, where the 9th was in training for the D-Day invasion. They hit the D-Day beaches in Normandy on June 10, 1944 (D + 4), where they came ashore on Utah Beach, and then (according to a history of the 9th) "...cut off the Cotentin Peninsula, drove on to Cherbourg and penetrated the port's heavy defenses.

After a brief rest in July, the division took part in the St. Lo break-through and in August helped close the Falaise Gap."

The battle of the "Falaise Gap" or "Falaise Pocket":
The Germans were driven off the D-Day beaches and were retreating east toward Germany as fast as they could. There was a gap in the Allied lines between the American and British forces near the town of Falaise, France, and most of the Germans headed there to try and make their escape. The Americans and British then managed to link up and close that gap, and they trapped a large part of the German army there, and there was very heavy fighting which in the end destroyed most of the German forces trapped there. The Americans took very heavy losses in this fighting, and this is where John T. Avent was killed on August 10, 1944. The 9th division was near the French town of Forien, on August 9th, so JT Avent was probably killed in that vicinity.