William Halyburton Jr. was born on August 2, 1924 in Canton, North Carolina. He had two brothers, Bob and Joe. In 1940, Halyburton’s family moved to Miami, Florida, but shortly thereafter, William Halyburton returned to North Carolina to live with an aunt and uncle in Wilmington. He was a Christian young man and in 1943…
Sgt Nicole Gee of Roseville, California enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2017, and was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 24, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, where she maintained ground electronics transmission equipment. Sgt Gee deployed to Afghanistan aboard USS Iwo Jima as part of Operation Allies Refuge where she served on a Female…
Thomas J. McHugh was born in New York City on 23 December 1919 to Peter and Bridget Porter McHugh. SgtMaj McHugh grew up in Philadelphia and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 3 October 1938, entering the regular Marine Corps in May 1943. The early assignments of SgtMaj McHugh included the Training Center New…
Lewie Merritt was born in Ridge Spring, South Carolina on June 26, 1897. In 1917, at the age of 19, Merritt graduated from the Citadel in Charleston and received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. In 1918, Merritt served in France, fighting in the Battle of Belleau Wood. In 1923, he went to…
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…
