diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 561776185f..75f68e1f16 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
  * Make sure sstables with moved starts are removed correctly in LeveledGenerations (CASSANDRA-16552)
  * Upgrade jackson-databind to 2.9.10.8 (CASSANDRA-16462)
 Merged from 3.0:
+ * Ensure java executable is on the path (CASSANDRA-14325)
  * Make speculative retry parameter case-insensitive for backward compatibility with 2.1 (CASSANDRA-16467)
  * Push digest mismatch exceptions to trace (CASSANDRA-14900)
  * Handle correctly the exceptions thrown by custom QueryHandler constructors (CASSANDRA-16703)
diff --git a/bin/cassandra b/bin/cassandra
index 1df927facd..9b72a31753 100755
--- a/bin/cassandra
+++ b/bin/cassandra
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ if [ -n "$JAVA_HOME" ]; then
         fi
     done
 else
-    JAVA=java
+    JAVA=`command -v java 2> /dev/null`
 fi
 
 if [ -z $JAVA ] ; then
diff --git a/bin/debug-cql b/bin/debug-cql
index 00d4093b04..b4991fd264 100755
--- a/bin/debug-cql
+++ b/bin/debug-cql
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ fi
 if [ -n "$JAVA_HOME" ]; then
     JAVA="$JAVA_HOME/bin/java"
 else
-    JAVA=java
+    JAVA=`command -v java 2> /dev/null`
 fi
 
 if [ -z "$CASSANDRA_CONF" -o -z "$CLASSPATH" ]; then