Decorations

Since the last two entries concerned Marines who won the Navy Cross, I thought I’d devote this entry to examining the different awards and who earned what during the War.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll divide this into unit-wide awards and individual awards.

Division Awards
For participation in a particularly meritorious action, entire units would sometimes be awarded distinctive ribbons. Individuals participating in the action for which the unit was cited would be allowed to wear the decoration – hence, a replacement coming in for the battle of Iwo Jima would, at the war’s end, wear a single Presidential Unit Citation ribbon; a veteran of Saipan and Iwo Jima would wear the same ribbon with two bronze stars denoting a second award.

The 4th Marine Division, of which the 24th Regiment was a part, received the following citations during the War.


Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (authorized in 1942)
This medal was awarded to individuals serving in the Pacific ETO between December 7, 1941 and March 2, 1946. Ostensibly a soldier would become eligible after serving 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days, or for participating in active combat. The 4th Marine Division was also allowed four Bronze Stars on this ribbon, one for each campaign (Marshall Islands, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima).









World War Two Victory Medal (authorized in 1945)
Awarded to service personnel who served at least one day of active duty between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946.













Navy Unit Commendation
Awarded to any unit distinguishing itself in action with outstanding heroism; this award is one step below the Presidential Unit Citation and was awarded for service in the Marshall Islands (Operation Flintlock).

Presidential Unit Citation
The Presidential Unit Citation is the equivalent of the Navy Cross. Units receiving this decoration have exceeded the expectations of the service. The 4th Marine Division was presented with this award for efforts on Saipain / Tinian (Operation Forager) and Iwo Jima (Operation Detachment). The ribbon for this award would be decorated with two Bronze Stars to denote multiple citations.


Individual Awards
The big one is, of course, the Medal of Honor. Official citations begin with the lofty phrase “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” Only a handful of soldiers receive this award; twelve of them served in the 4th Marine Division.

- PFC Richard Beatty Anderson (E/2/23) on 1 February, 1944 – Marshall Islands. PFC Anderson dropped a grenade he was preparing to throw, and dove on it, shielding three other Marines with his body.

- Col. Justice M. Chambers (3rd Assault Bn/25) on Iwo Jima. Col. Chambers organized and personally led an eight hour attack on Japanese defensive positions on Iwo’s D-Day, helping to secure the tenuous beachhead. He was critically wounded but survived the war.

- Sgt. Darrell Samuel Cole (B/1/23) on 19 February, 1945 – Iwo Jima. With his squad trapped by a trio of Japanese pillboxes, Sgt. Cole directed his machine gun team to eliminate the nearest and most threatening. With that fortification out of action and his MG jammed, Sgt. Cole went forward alone, carrying only a pistol and a grenade. He singlehandedly destroyed the strongpoint, making numerous trips under fire for more ammunition, and was killed by an enemy grenade as he returned to his squad.

- Sgt. Ross Franklin Gray (A/1/25) on 21 February 1945 – Iwo Jima. Sgt. Franklin eliminated six Japanese fortifications singlehandedly, crawling under intense fire to hurl satchel charges into each position. He accounted for “more than 25 enemy troops and a quantity of vital ordinance gear and ammunition.”

- PFC Douglas Thomas Jacobson (3/23) on 26 February 1945 – Iwo Jima. PFC Jacboson picked up a discarded bazooka on Iwo Jima, eliminated a 20mm cannon, two MG emplacements, a “large blockhouse,” the crew of a second pillbox (which he then detonated), and seven earth-covered rifle emplacements containing ten enemy soldiers. Not content with his busy day, Jacobson volunteered to join a neighboring assault company, with whom he destroyed another pillbox, a tank, and finally assaulted a last pillbox singlehandedly. His total for the end of the day was 16 positions destroyed, one tank disabled, and nearly 75 enemy soldiers eliminated.

- Gunnery Sergeant Robert Howard McCard (A/4th Tank Bn) on 16 June, 1944 – Saipan. McCard’s tank was rendered immobile by a battery of Japanese 77mm guns. The crew continued to fire until the situation grew too dangerous, at which point Sgt. McCard ordered them to evacuate while he threw hand grenades to cover their retreat, sustaining a serious injury in the process. McCard then removed one of his tank’s machine guns and fired it at the approaching enemy, accounting for 16 Japanese before he was killed.

- Pvt. Joseph William Ozbourn (1/23) on 30 July, 1944 – Tinian. Pvt. Ozbourn, a BAR gunner, was detailed to clear out stubborn Japanese pillboxes near the end of the fighting on Tinian. He was preparing to throw a grenade when a blast from a dugout seriously wounded him and two nearby Marines. Unable to throw the grenade without injuring his friends, Ozbourn took the blast with his own body.


Five of the recipients were members of the 24th Marine Regiment.

- Private Richard Keith Sorenson (M/3/24) – 2 February 1944 – Marshall Islands. Pvt. Sorenson threw himself on a Japanese grenade, saving five other Marines. Though severely wounded, he survived the experience and joined the USMC Reserves in 1946.

- Lt. John Vincent Power (K/3/24) – 1 February 1944 – Marshall Islands. Lt. Power was badly wounded by a demolition charge, but attacked a Japanese pillbox anyway, firing his carbine with one hand. While reloading to continue the attack, he was shot a second time and killed.

- Pharmacist’s Mate Franklin Pierce (2/24) – Iwo Jima. Pierce, a Navy corpsman attached to 2nd Battalion, alternately administered first aid and covering fire for a stretcher party caught in the open. After expending the last of his ammunition, Pierce carried the last wounded men across 200 feet of open space. The next day, while attending to another wounded Marine, Pierce was wounded himself, yet declined treatment. Instead, he directed the treatment of the other Marine and again provided covering fire for other corpsmen.

- Captain Joseph Jeremiah McCarthy (2/24) – 21 February 1945 – Iwo Jima. Captain McCarthy organized an assault on Japanese positions, personally leading his men across 75 yards of open ground and assaulting two strongpoints. McCarthy personally disarmed a Japanese soldier and killed the enemy with his own weapon. He then rallied the rest of his company, pressed on, and captured a ridge near Motoyama Airfield #2.

- Lt. Col. Aquilla J. Dyess (1/24) – 2 February 1944 – Marshall Islands. The battalion commander of 1/24, Lt. Col. Dyess personally led assaults on 1 and 2 February. He was killed at the end of the battle by a Japanese machine gun.

Phil Wood was nearby:

The tanks finally came up, Col. Dyess leading the way on foot – and he organized the attack – he was fearless to the point of being foolhardy, refused to take cover – even buck privates were yelling at him to get down, but he’d only wave his Tommy gun at them and say he was a lucky Irishman.

That attack broke the back of the resistance – from then on the Japs were disorganized and fleeing. When the mortars went out of action, I went up and helped a couple of my machine gun squads root them out of their dugouts. The mortars had made a slaughterhouse of the area, and then we chased the few remaining, there couldn’t have been more than 25 or 30, up the tank trap, an 8 foot trench that ran around the island just inside the beach.

We raced after them. It was like hunting rats then – they scurried and scrambled, hid among the bodies of their own dead – there were hundreds of dead, killed by the Naval bombing the day before, lying in the trench, horribly twisted and mangled – headless, bodies laid open to the backbone, small pieces of flesh splattered on the ground, and carcasses so thick that at times we had to walk on them to get by. I remember stepping over a Samurai sword, but was too tired to even pick it up. Didn’t care. Col. Dyess was killed halfway up by a machine gun that they had set up in ambush. Fired at me, I think, but I heard the click of the bolt and hit the deck, and the shots went over me.

(Phil Wood letter, April 2, 1944)

In a 1982 interview, Captain Irving “Buck” Schechter, A/1/24, remembered Lt. Col. Dyess on the transports heading to Namur:

…this brings up the old story of the death premonition, which would sometimes come true and sometimes would not.

You see, one day when we were aboard the transports, Colonel Dyess asked to see me in private. We went over to the fantail and he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Buck," he said, "I know you're a lawyer. I also know I'm going to be killed on this operation. I want you to help me make out my will."

"Oh come on, Colonel," I answered, "I'll be glad to help on your will. My fee will be your picking up the check when we have dinner after the war back in the States. You're not going to get killed."

"Thank you, Buck, but I just feel in my bones that I am going to get killed."

And, of course, he did.

Captain Irving Schechter, 1982, quoted in Henry Berry's "Semper Fi, Mac."

The Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the second highest decoration available to members of the Coast Guard, Navy or Marine Corps. The blue represents naval service, and the white the "purity of selflessness." The Navy Cross may only be awarded for an act committed in the presence of great danger and at great personal risk; citations reference "extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty."

The 4th Marine Division won 111 of these coveted awards; 17 in the Marshalls, 38 on Saipan, and 56 on Iwo Jima.

Members of the 24th Marines who received the Navy Cross include:

- Lt. Col. Austin Brunelli, C/O of 1/24 (Iwo Jima)

- Major Roger G. B. Broome, C/O 24th Regiment Weapons Company. June 16-July 8, 1944, Saipan.

(Major Broome's citation reads, in part: "acting on his own initiative on 5 July, he braved the heavy fire of enemy small arms to move forward into a narrow wooded defile with a 75-mm. self-propelled gun and bringing effective fire to bear on Japanese holed up in inaccessible caves, successfully attacked and enabled the infantry to advance." Whether or not this was in support of the ambushed patrol will be the subject of further research)

- PFC Frank Celentano, C/1/24. 1 February 1944, Marshall Islands. (Celentano lost a hand late on the first day of Namur as he pitched a Japanese grenade away from his comrades. He went without medical attention overnight, keeping silent so as not to give away their exposed position).

- Warrant Officer Ira Davidson, 37mm Platoon Leader, Weapons Company. 21 February 1945, Iwo Jima.

- Captain William Eddy, Jr, B/1/24. 19 February 1945, Iwo Jima.

- Captain Frank E. Garrettson, E/2/24. 1-2 February 1944, Marshall Islands. (Garrettson was wounded in the blockhouse explosion on Namur - most of 2nd Battalion's casualties were a result of the blast or falling debris - but he continued to lead his men through the rest of the battle).

- Corporal Alex Haluchak, B/1/24. 1-2 February 1944, Marshall Islands. (Wounded twice soon after landing, yet remained in the fight. Haluchak is mentioned in passing by Phil Wood, who notes that after Namur one man from "B" Company was awarded the Navy Cross).

- Captain William T. Ketcham, Jr. I/3/24. 24 February, 1945, Iwo Jima.

- Platoon Sgt. William O. Koontz, 24th Regiment Weapons Company. 7 July 1944, Saipan.

- 1st Lt. Wray C. Lewis, 3/24. 18 June 1944, Saipan.

- Sergeant James T. Mitchell, F/2/24. 15 June - 9 July, 1944, Saipan. (Sgt. Mitchell sustained two saber wounds on 4 July, though the sword wielder presumably came off worse - one hopes Sgt. Mitchell was able to bring home a souvenir of his experience!)

- Sergeant Jesse E. Murphree, G/2/24. 19 February to 15 March, 1945, Iwo Jima.

- Platoon Sgt. Michael F. Murray, Jr. C/1/24. 3 March 1945, Iwo Jima. (Posthumous)

- 2nd Lt. Stanley E. Osborn, E/2/24. July 24, 1944, Tinian.

- Private Henry T. Pound, G/2/24. 1 March 1945, Iwo Jima. (Posthumous)

- 1st Lt. Benjamin S. Preston, Jr. 3/24. 1 - 2 February, Marshall Islands. (Posthumous)

- Captain Walter J. Ridlon, F/2/24. 19 February - 16 March, 1945, Iwo Jima.

- Corporal Franklin C. Robbins, C/1/24. 19 February - 1 March, 1945, Iwo Jima.

- 1st Lt. Thomas A. Schultz, C/1/24. 15-22 June, Saipan.

- Corporal Joseph T. Sganga, F/2/24. 5 March, 1945, Iwo Jima.

- PFC Bronislaw A. Snieckus, G/2/24. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands.

- 1st Lt. Frederic A. Stott, Liaison Officer, 1/24. 17-18 June, Saipan. (Lt. Stott was a great friend of Phil Wood, and apparently his appellation "Fireball" was well deserved. He guided support tanks on June 17 and 18, and when his tank of June 18 was set afire by a shell, he continued to direct the attack on foot).

- PFC Louis W. Trafton, I/3/24. 4 July, 1944, Saipan.

- 1st Lt. William West, 2/24. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands. (Posthumous)

- PFC James R. Zarillo, 3/24. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands. (Posthumous)


Finally, the following members of A Company, 24th Marines received this high honor. Each of these will eventually be the subject of their own entry.

- Corporal Arthur B. Ervin, A/1/24. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands.

- Captain Irving Schechter, A/1/24. 24 - 25 July, 1944, Tinian.

- Corporal Howard Eugene Smith, A/1/24. 2 February, 1944, Marshall Islands.

- Private Cecil Ray Tolley, A/1/24. 25 July, 1944, Tinian.

- Sgt. Frank A. Tucker, A/1/24. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands.


Navy Distinguished Service Medal
The Navy Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to individuals who render exceptionally meritorious service in any capacity.

The 4th Marine Division received four of these awards during the course of the War.














The Silver Star
The Silver Star is awarded for exceptional conduct against a foreign enemy of the United States - the back is inscribed "For Gallantry In Action."


Individual citations for actions meriting a Silver Star are difficult to find; this is mostly due to the number that were issued. The 4th Marine Division won 646 during the War; how many of those were awarded to the 24th is beyond my ken for the moment.

Some members of Company A received this award. It's likely there are more than these, as I find more information I'll try and update.

- Corporal Glenn Edgar Doster. 25 July, 1944, Tinian

- Corporal Wallace Morgan Holt. 25 July, 1944, Tinian.

- Private Alva R. Perry. 6 July, 1944, Saipan.

Al Perry's Silver Star citation: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company A, First Battalion, Twenty-fourth Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, 6 July 1944. With his company undergoing a severe enemy counterattack, Private First Class Perry fearlessly rose to his feet and walked forward firing his automatic rifle, personally accounting for twenty- seven Japanese soldiers and setting heroic examples for the balance of the platoon, who moved up behind him and broke the enemy counterattack. His initiative, inspiring gallantry and disregard for his own safety reflect the highest credit upon Private First Class Perry and the United States Naval Service."

- 1st Lt. Harry Dare Reynolds, Jr. 1 February, 1944, Marshall Islands. Lieutenant Reynolds was granted a second Silver Star on 6 July, 1944, enabling him to wear the Silver Star with Gold Star.

The Bronze Star
The Bronze Star is awarded for meritorious or heroic achievement of a slightly lesser degree than the Bronze Star. 2, 517 Bronze Stars were awarded to members of the 4th Marine Division.

Again, individual citations are difficult to come by, and again, as more information becomes available, I'll try to update the list. As of now, I only know of a few A Company men who won the Bronze Star.

- Corporal Arthur Ervin, in addition to his Navy Cross, won a Bronze Star. This was either for some action on Saipan, or in his Raider service.

- Corporal Michael Anthony Frihauf won a Bronze Star on the Marshall Islands.

- 1st Lt. Philip E. Wood, Jr. for his patrol on 5 July, 1944.

For heroic service while attached to the Twenty-Fourth Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in action against the enemy Japanese forces at Saipan, Marianas Islands, on 5 July, 1944. Volunteering to lead a patrol forward of our front lines to a cave believed to be holding Japanese soldiers and civilians, First Lieutenant Wood boldly advanced and, upon reaching the vicinity of the cave, learned that friendly natives were being held prisoner by a group of enemy soldiers. Fully aware of the danger involved in attempting a rescue, he unhesitatingly pressed forward, but was mortally wounded while performing his perilous mission. First Lieutenant Wood’s exceptional fortitude, his valiant fighting spirit and cool courage in the face of extreme danger were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Phil Wood was recommended for the Silver Star, but due to some piece of military bureaucracy was awarded the Bronze Star instead.


The Purple Heart
One of the most common, though undoubtedly the most tragic of military decorations, the Purple Heart is reserved for those who have been wounded or killed in action against the enemy. (The criteria for "wounded" changes with time; currently any wound requiring the attention of medical personnel is eligible for Purple Heart status). Those who are wounded more than once are awarded gold stars on their ribbon.

Few decorations are more symbolic of the suffering of warfare. The 4th Marine Division collected 611 Purple Hearts for the Marshalls, 6,262 for Saipan, and a staggering 7,863 for Iwo Jima; a total of 14, 736.

A Company sustained 97% casualties out of its original complement; by the end of the war only seven members did not sport the white and purple ribbon.

I've left the "mystery names" off this list until I know more for certain.

The Marshall Islands (Namur) 1-2 February, 1944
Corporal Arthur Ervin (WIA)
PFC Stephen Hopkins (KIA)
1 Lt. Theodore K. Johnson (KIA)
PFC Lawrence E. Knight (WIA)
Corporal Cecil G. Lewis (KIA)
1 Lt. Harry D. Reynolds (WIA)

Saipan 15 June - 9 July, 1944
PFC DeWitt L. Dietrich (KIA)
Corporal Arthur Ervin (KIA)
Cpl. Robert Fleischauer (WIA)
James William Jackson (WIA)
PFC Lawrence E. Knight (KIA)
Sgt. Arnold Ross Richardson (KIA)
PFC Lionel Perez Salazar (WIA)
PFC George A. Smith (WIA)
PFC David W. Spohn (WIA)
PFC Robert Tierney (WIA)
Sgt. Frank A. Tucker (KIA)
1st Lt. Philip E. Wood (KIA)

Tinian 24 July - 1 August 1944
PFC Richard Joseph Brodnicki (KIA)
PFC Winston McKay Cabe (WIA)
Sgt. Michael Anthony Frihauf (KIA)
Cpl. Wallace Morgan Holt (WIA)
PFC Lionel Perez Salazar (WIA)
PVT Cecil Ray Tolley (WIA)

Iwo Jima 19 February - 19 March 1945
PFC Edward H. Bookwalter (KIA)
Cpl. John Martin Corcoran (KIA)
Sgt. Luther Harold Diehl (KIA)
PFC Claude Lorton Godwin (KIA)
Sgt. Kenneth Russell Gray (KIA)
James William Jackson (WIA)
PFC Andrew Loban (KIA)
Cpl. William P. Loutzenheiser (KIA)
2nd Lt. Stephen H. Opalenik (KIA)
PFC Roland Edwin Palmer (DOW)
SSgt. James Redding (WIA)

Dates Unknown
Sgt. Thomas Eugene Drake (WIA)
PFC Allan B. Duncan (WIA)
PFC Leon H Roquet (WIA)
Capt. Irving Schechter (WIA)
PFC Howard Eugene Smith (WIA)
1st Lt. Frederic A. Stott (WIA)
Gy. Sgt. Stephen Vinczi, Jr. (WIA)
1st Lt. Roy I. Wood, Jr. (WIA)
Plt. Sgt. John Yaniga (WIA)
Cpl. Leonard Yush (WIA)