Dog Company

Getting back into the swing of researching, since February is coming up - and February was a VERY busy month for our boys in Able Company (Namur in 1944, Iwo Jima in 1945) - I've been looking into the men who joined after that first battle.

These men were among the original members of the First Battalion, 24th Marines, but were in the battalion Weapons Company (Dog Company). When the Marine Corps reorganized, the heavy machine guns of the Weapons Company were distributed among the rifle companies, while the 81mm mortars were placed under the command of the battalion Headquarters Company. Therefore, it is likely that most of these men were machine gunners.

Each of the heavy M1917 MGs required a crew of seven: a corporal leading the team, a gunner, assistant gunner, and four ammo bearers. They carried two hand carts, one for the gun itself (which weighed in at over 100 pounds with its tripod) and one for ammunition. Each company wound up with six of the heavy guns, which augmented the firepower of its six light machine guns.

I don't know exactly what specific role each man played, but it would be my guess that most were added directly to the pool of machine gunners. Possible exceptions are noted.


William A. Peck, as a PFC. Eventually promoted to Corporal.
Wounded and evacuated from Iwo Jima, February 24, 1945

Peck was almost definitely a machine gun squad leader; George referred to himself at one point as "Peck's bad boy."




John W. Donahue, Jr. as a PFC. Later promoted to Sergeant.
Born 1921.
As far as I know, Donahue survived the war uninjured. He died in 1997.






Glenn Edgar Doster as a PFC. Later promoted to Corporal.
Born 1922, in Perrysburg Ohio.
Doster was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action on July 25, 1944.
He was wounded and evacuated from Iwo Jima, February 25 1945.
Doster died in 1978.




Lee R. Anderson, Jr. as a corporal. He hailed from Irving, Texas.
Anderson appears in a picture of Al Perry's rifle squad.
He was wounded and evacuated from Saipan on June 15, 1944. Though he missed Tinian while in the hospital, he returned to the company and served on Iwo Jima.




Keith W. Thomas as a private. Later promoted to PFC.
Thomas was transferred out of Able Company in July, 1944, reasons and destination unknown.






James H. Pritchett as a PFC. Later promoted to Corporal. He came from Forsyth, Georgia.
Pritchett was wounded and evacuated from Iwo Jima, February 20, 1945.





Joseph M. Peterpaul as a PFC. Later promoted to Corporal.
As far as I know, Peterpaul survived the war uninjured.






John A. Cuthbertson as a PFC, later promoted to Corporal. He was from Philadelphia, PA.
Cuthbertson was wounded and evacuated from Iwo Jima, February 27 1945.





Thomas Eugene Drake as Master Gunnery Sergeant. Later promoted to Second Lieutenant. Lived in San Diego, California.
Drake was a pre-war China Marine who served with the "Pogey Bait Sixth." He had seven years in the Corps by the time the 24th Marines was organized. Drake was a "mustang," or an officer promoted up from the ranks. He eventually led a platoon of Able Company on Iwo Jima.
Drake was wounded on February 26, 1945, but stayed on the line and survived the battle.

Lawrence J. Jaster as a PFC.
Jaster was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 16, 1944. He was transferred out of the unit for hospitalization and did not return.





Michael J. Graziadei as a Staff Sergeant. Later promoted to Technical Sergeant.
(T/Sgt. was a staff rank on the same pay grade as Gunnery Sergeant)
Graziadei actually joined Able Company in December, 1943. He was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 25 1944. He did not return to the company




Luca A. Durante as a PFC.
Durante was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 16, 1944. He was transferred out of the unit for hospitalization and did not return.





Edward DuBeck as a PFC. Later promoted to Corporal. He hailed from Philadelphia, PA.
DuBeck was possibly wounded twice and awarded a Silver Star.






Theodore Droszcz as a PFC.
Born November 11, 1916.
Droszcz was killed on July 24, 1944, on Tinian.






Armond D. Leisure as a corporal. Later promoted to sergeant. He lived in Pomona, California.
Leisure was born in 1913. In civilian life, he was a professional truck driver.
He was killed on Saipan, June 15, 1944.





Wallace W. Duncan as a PFC. He came from Charlotte, NC.
Duncan was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, July 6 1944. He returned to the company and served through Iwo Jima.






Jack Calvin Comer as a PFC. He was born in 1920, and lived in Tillamook, Oregon with his wife Elvina.
Comer was killed on Saipan, July 8 1944. His remains were never recovered.






David W. Brunjes as a PFC. He lived in Pilot, Missouri.
Brunjes was killed on Saipan, June 22, 1944. He is buried in the Punchbowl cemetery.







Alan Milton Smith as a PFC. He was born in 1916 and lived in Pennsylvania.
Smith was killed on Saipan, June 16 1944.
He is buried in the Punchbowl cemetery.






Peter Pecori as a PFC.
Pecori was wounded and evacuated from Iwo Jima, March 9, 1945. The island was declared secure that day, making him one of Able Company's last casualties.






Gerald F. Patterson as a PFC.
Patterson was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 22 1944. He did not return to the company.






Aldo Passante as a PFC. He lived in East Orange, NJ.
Passante was wounded and evacuated from Saipan on June 16, 1944.







Printis M. Parsons as a private. Later promoted to corporal.
Parsons was wounded and evacuated from Saipan on June 22, 1944. He returned to the company and fought on Iwo Jima, until he was wounded in the Meat Grinder on March 1, 1945.





Marion E. Lyon as a corporal.
Lyon was wounded twice on Iwo Jima; once on March 1 and again on March 7. The second time, he was evacuated and did not return.







William F. Savoy as a PFC.
Savoy was wounded and evacuated from Saipan on June 16, 1944.








PFC Russell G. Sanderlin as a PFC. Later promoted to Corporal. He was born in July, 1923.
Sanderlin was wounded and evacuated on Iwo Jima, March 16 1945.
He died in Oregon, in 1992.






Dominick Piccolomini as a PFC.
He was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 16 1944.







Louis O. Pendleton as a PFC.
Pendleton survived Saipan and Tinian without a scratch, and possibly made it through the war unscathed.






Hamilton T. Pendergast as a PFC. He hailed from Brooklyn, New York.
Pendergast was wounded on Saipan, June 15 1944. He was evacuated but returned to serve on Iwo Jima.






Anthony A. Pramberger as a PFC. Later promoted to corporal.
Pramberger was wounded and evacuated from Saipan, June 16, 1944.







William Ralph Pettyjohn as a PFC. He was from Marietta, GA.
Pettyjohn served on a heavy machine gun crew. He was wounded during the banzai attack on Tinian, July 25, 1944. He was hospitalized, and honorably discharged on June 2, 1945.





After considering this list, I'm willing to bet that Pramberger, Durante, Jaster, Passante, Piccolomini, Savoy, and Smith were all members of one heavy MG crew. Pramberger would have been the team leader, as the ranking NCO, with the other six as PFCs filling in the other positions.

Evidence?

George mentions:
"Before I got hit, [Tom Hurley and I] were going up a hill - the hill was cut practically going in half like a firebreak would be, and we were on one side. During the night they knocked the heavy machine gun out, and Hurley said, 'Come on, we'll go up and bring them back and bring the gun back.' We had no sooner started up, then believe it or not I saw the shell hit. I guess that's hard to believe, but at any rate, the Japanese had a couple 88s, German 88s - they fire flat trajectory - you can tell by sound and we knew since we survived the first one the next one was coming! Both Hurley and I escaped with nothing, had a couple guys in front of us that got killed, a guy alongside of us took a piece of shrapnel to the shinbone, it really hurt me as much as it did him. But what it did, it shook me a little goofy. Only in the sense that I could not control my emotions. I started to cry. I wasn't hurt, you know, nothing.... we never got to the gun or the men...."

I think George and the others were going after Pramberger's team. The "couple guys in front of us" were probably Corporal Albert Duryea and PFC John Manson, both of whom were killed by shell fragments.

Albert Benjamin Duryea











John Lloyd Manson











And finally, on a slightly lighter note: I think I found the elusive "Corporal Robbins" as named by Phil Wood in his letters and Fred Stott in his history of Saipan.

Lt. Wood: "Sgt. Tucker was in a hole on my left – he and Harry and Roy and two or three from Roy’s platoon and I gave the dugout a barrage of grenades – at a range of ten yards – they were deafening – Tuck and Cpl. Robbins charged first, but were driven back by fire."
[about fighting on Namur]

Capt. Stott: "Each company possessed a jeep and trailer with a two man team to operate and ferry the supplies from the quartermaster dump (and elsewhere) up to the men needing them. As Corporal Robbins, one of the supply men, put it -- "Give us a goddam jeep and we'll 'borrow' enough gas and gear to keep your _______ bellies and guns full!"

PFC Franklin C. Robbins, Dog Company - later Headquarters.