On October 5, 1945, 17-year-old Marine Corps rifleman Jack Lucas was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman for heroism in combat on Iwo Jima. Lucas was born on February 14, 1928 in Plymouth, North Carolina. When Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan in December of 1941, Jack Lucas, though only 14 years…
On July 1, 2024, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269, “The Gunrunners,” was reactivated at MCAS New River in North Carolina. HMLA-269 was formed at New River in February 1971, and was activated on July 1, 1971. The squadron was deactivated in December of 2022 as part of Force Design 2030, leaving MCAS New River,…
Captain Joe Foss, USMC, was a fighter pilot at Guadalcanal during WWII. Within five months of arriving at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Foss had shot down 26 Japanese fighter planes and bombers, tying the record of WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker and earning the moniker “Ace of Aces.” Foss returned to the United States in March…
Recent issues of both the Marine Corps Times and the Navy Times contain an article titled “The Man who made Belleau Wood—and the Marine Corps—Immortal.”[i] The article discusses Chicago Tribune reporter Floyd Gibbons who was one of 36 reporters approved by the military to report on WWI. At the start, we read the opening line form Gibbons’ dispatch on the…
On March 15, 2024, Leatherneck Magazine published an article by Col Dwight H. Sullivan titled “The Life of Lauchheimer: The Man Behind the Corps’ Top Shooting Trophy.” In the article, Col Sullivan discusses the remarkable career of BGen Charles Lauchheimer and how the trophy bearing his name came about. In what follows, we will survey the salient elements of this…
At the website of the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, one finds an article titled “Beyond Heroism: Hospital Corpsmen and the Battle for Iwo Jima,” that captures in a concise expression the courage displayed by the corpsman who went ashore with Marines at Iwo Jima.[i] On the morning of February 19, 1945, Marines of the…
A recent issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture contains an article by historian and Marine Corps veteran Roger McGrath titled “The Marine Corps’ Answer to James Bond.” The article looks at the life and career of Col Peter Ortiz, who was born Pierre Julien Ortiz in New York City in 1913. His mother was an American of Swiss-German…
The first Marine to be appointed Sergeant Major is Archibald Sommers, who enlisted in the Corps in June of 1799. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major on January 1, 1801and left active duty in the Marine Corps in June of 1802. The office of Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps did not…
On November 10, 1775 the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, published the following resolution. Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care…
There is an interesting, eclectic website called ThoughtCo., that has various menus of topics like history, philosophy, geography, literature, visual arts and more. For each topic there are numerous sub-topics that allow readers to choose what to search and to learn. Under “American History” one of the sub-topics is what they call “American Revolution.” Here,…
By Lisa Potts, CWO5 USMC (Ret.) After forming at New River (Camp Lejeune), North Carolina from October 1942 to February 1943 the Twenty Fourth Marine Regiment was activated at Camp Pendleton. On their first Christmas under the Regimental banner, Colonel Franklin A. Hart proudly commanded – “Members of the Twenty Fourth we have trained hard…
by LtCol Lynn “Kim” Kimball, USMC (Ret) The Duke of Wellington once famously stated that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eaton. It can be equally said that victory in World War ll was likewise achieved in many respects on, above and inland from the beaches of Onslow County, here…
