It's been a busy week here at the Marine Battleherk Project HQ. Very early this week, I was tagged in a Facebook post by John Hall that told the story of a young woman in search of information on her grandfather, Staff Sergeant Daniel M. Edwards. He served with VMR-152 from 1952 to 1956. I'm working on supplying her with the VMR-152 war diaries for those years as well as any media from that era. She in turn is working on making digital copies of what she has from her grandfather and will email them to me so that they can be shared with th transport community.
Monday I sent off an email to VMGR-152 about 4 Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and one Navy Commendation Medal from 1968 that were approved at every level up the chain of command, but never awarded to the 5 Marines listed in the citation. The source documentation, flight logbook entry from Mort Sanford, and the October 1968 Command Chronology were forwarded to VMGR-152. Cross your fingers for these men to finally receive their medals after 48 years. Tuesday evening this week I was contacted by the grandson of Technical Sergeant Harold C. Hunter, who served as a rear gunner with VMSB-234 during the Guadalcanal campaign. We'll also be sharing historical documents and media with each other. The grandson, Jack Hunter, has provided me with at least 12 leads on new historical information for my records and it will help VMGR-234 learn more about their WWII history.
Today brought great satisfaction, but also sadness. From information submitted by Jack Hunter, I discovered that there was another crash in VMSB-234 which I had no knowledge of. On January 13th, 1943, 2ndLt. Samuel S. Rogers and his Gunner, PFC. James K. Michot, crashed NE of Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific in their SBD-4 aircraft, BuNo 06786. It is always a sad moment to add more names to my casualty list, but I couldn't help but feel satisfaction in that they are now remembered forever. Of course, these cases would never have happened without the support of those who follow this website and the Marine Battleherk Project on Facebook. You, reading this now, made this possible. These families are learning more about their ancestor who served in the squadrons we once, or currently are, serving with. Semper Fi,
Alan