OT- FM 1/C Vernon L. Castle USMC - fun question

FM 1/C Vernon L. Castle was a Marine Raider who was killed and his body left on the Makin Atoll and later recovered with his weapon (03?).:ugh: What was this Marine's rank?:D

Hints: If you are a China Marine history buff, you might already know this rank. He was not in the Navy.

If you were one of the group who researched this rank, please refrain from posting, please.:slap: It took me some time to uncover this relatively uncommon Marine Corps rank, and I thought I knew them all. I was wrong!:cool:

There is a famous Navy boat that was in the news a few years ago that is named after a Marine of the same rank. Name the boat.:confused:

Semper Fi,
Jim

Field Music First Class ?

Field Musician First Class, I cheated a little, I googled everything I could think of and finally found this site. World War II Marine Raiders Home At Last

Real interesting story, never heard of this action..

john

Field Musician 1st Class Vernon L. Castle was a bugler.

The USS Cole is named for a MOH winner bugler, FM 1/C Cole, who prefered a machine gun to a bugle.

Nice work guys. You were faster than I, except for the USS Cole, which was pretty much impossible to figure out.

Try finding that rank (FM 1/C) in any list of Marine Corps ranks.

Jim

There was a movie about this action made in 1943 called Gung Ho. There is a gentleman living in our community that was a membeer of carson's raiders. He is not shy about telling you a story. Verey colerful launuage for a runnaway Hutterite.

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Originally Posted by sdkrag

There was a movie about this action made in 1943 called Gung Ho. There is a gentleman living in our community that was a membeer of carson's raiders. He is not shy about telling you a story. Verey colerful launuage for a runnaway Hutterite.

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SDKRAG - "Hutterite" - Is'nt that a very small community/s of folks in South Dakota(?). Somewhat similier to the Amish and not very well known of by prefrence.

Jim,

Try ww2gyrene.org/equiptment .htm

Nice site and his book is a good read.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. Someone will always have the right answer. You just have to know where to look.

Great web site! Saw another rank I was unaware of (Steward).

Jim

Hey Jim,

Who was the first Marine Corps Officer to receive the Medal of Honor in WWII, what was his unit and where was he stationed?
And for extra points who was the enlisted man that received the Navy Cross for his actions at the same time .
Bob

That would be Marines 1st Lt. George Ham Cannon,(awarded posthumously), Battery H, 6th Defense Battalion, Fleet Marine Force, Sand Island, Midway Islands, 7 December 1941.

I know of no enlisted man in the Marines who received a Navy Cross that day.

Jim

Marine Corporal Harold R. Hazelwood received the Navy Cross the same day in the same action. Gotcha!

Jim

Atta Boy Jim,

"Shortly before midnight on 7 December, a pair of Japanese destroyers began shelling Midway to neutralize the aircraft base there. A salvo directed against Sand Island struck the power plant, which served as the CP of the 6th Def. Bat., greviously wounding First Lt. George H. Cannon. He remained at his post until the other Marines wounded by the same shell could be cared for and his communication specialist. Cpl. Harold Hazelwood, had put the battalion switchboard back into action."
God bless them all.
Bob

So many brave men died in that war, as did in countless others. I often wonder if the gene pool was severely diminished by the two big wars, particularly the 1st World War.

To stay at your post, knowing you are dying, is a situation I would prefer not to have to encounter. I think brave warriors continue to expose themselves to greater and greater levels of risk in combat until they are finally killed, while their compatriots at home complain incessantly about the deprivations they must endure to keep the brave in conflict; and the leaders of the world become even more bold in their innocuous demands of their foes that steadily increase the level of danger the brave must suffer.

The 1903 Springfield rifle was a magnificent tool used by those brave warriors to enforce those innocuous demands mostly by men too cowardly to risk their own lives. There were exceptions - TR, Bush Sr., Kennedy, Hitler, and damn few others in the past century. I often wonder who held my 1903's, and how they fared.

Semper Fi,
Jim

Neil Iovino died a few months ago, born in Chicago in 1919 joined the USMC in 1940 and went to China with the 4th Marines. They were in Bataan when the Japs started the attack. Neil Iovino became the first 4th Marine casualty on Bataan. He told me that he was sent to Bilibid Prison where an American doctor operated on him. He was a POW in Cabanatuan until rescured by the 6th Ranger Battalion in 1945. He told me that he went back to Bataan in 1979.

Type in Neil Iovino USMC for more information

God Bless Neil Iovino USMC, he had his hell on earth.

I did google Mr Iovino and came up with the Rescue Roster of Cabanatuan, 30 Jan 1945. I like to check Marine service numbers because my Dad was USMC 1940-46. I came across SgtMaj Kelly John B. 84607 4th Marines 1Bn HQ. Quite an old salt, his service # is 20k lower than all the Marines he was with and prewar USMC was not that large of an organization. Wonder how old he was at Bataan.
Thank You for remembering Mr Iovino.
Bob

SgtMaj Kelly has an interesting SN, since during WWI the Marine SN's were into 6-digits.

Ironman Lee was taken prisoner with the China Marines and spent the entire war in a Japanese prison camp. Ironman Lee joined the Marines during WWI. He earned 3-Navy Crosses if my memory serves me correctly (after WWI). He later died of old age at home in Virginia. Ironman Lee was later astounded to discover he had gone from Lt to Colonel while in POW camp (promotion in rank and pay every two years).

Those guys were tough old birds.

Jim

To most people around Fort Worth, Vernon Castle is remembered as the famous British pilot (Croix de Guerre awardee for aerial combat) Captain Vernon Castle, who was killed here while serving as an instructor pilot in WW-I. He was also a famous dancer, prewar (invented the "Castle Walk" with his wife, Irene) and silent screen star. Because he was a war hero as well as a "hollywood" type he was greatly admired here, and his funeral was the largest ever given in Fort Worth, even today. A movie of his life starring Fred Astair premiered here in the 1930's (crummy movie, left out flying except for minor references and nothing about his combat time).

My question is, did someone name Vernon L. after the RFC Captain Castle? Castle died in 1918 and could not have fathered Vernon L. USMC. Perhaps the dad of the Marine served as RFC or USAS (after about 8 months under British/Canadian administration the three fields here transitioned to US control but continued training Brits, Canucks, and U.S. Army side-by-side til the Armistice) at Fort Worth.

Ironman Lee was quite a Marine. Great story put up by Dick Culver about some of his exploits.
In one of Col Lee's bio's it stated his Navy Cross had a Silver Star in it which noted that was his second award. What would be used to denote his third Navy Cross and how was Col Pullers five Navy Crosses shown.

Vernon was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, by the way.

Trivia, to be sure, but very likely related..

Griff,

I suspect there is a connection. Some mother liked old Vernon softshoe routine and named her kid after him, or maybe a distant cousin?

Were both Vernon's born in Stillwater, as FM 1/C Castle was from Stillwater.

Jim

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Originally Posted by Long Island

Ironman Lee was quite a Marine. Great story put up by Dick Culver about some of his exploits.
In one of Col Lee's bio's it stated his Navy Cross had a Silver Star in it which noted that was his second award. What would be used to denote his third Navy Cross and how was Col Pullers five Navy Crosses shown.

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Second and subsequent awards of any medal are indicated by Gold Stars for members of the Naval Service and Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters for Army/Air Force. A Silver Star/Oak Leaf Cluster is used to indicate 5 awards of the same medal. Colonel Puller's Navy Cross had 4 gold stars attached to it to indicate 5th Award. Had he been awarded 6 Navy Crosses the medal would have had 1 Silver Star attached to it. Hope that helps.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Jim Tarleton

Griff,

I suspect there is a connection. Some mother liked old Vernon softshoe routine and named her kid after him, or maybe a distant cousin?

Were both Vernon's born in Stillwater, as FM 1/C Castle was from Stillwater.

Jim

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I just now ran across your forum on Carlson's Raiders marine Vernon Castle. Vernon's platoon leader wrote of the raiders activity in the Solomon Islands in his book 'bless 'em all:'. I bought a copy from Jim Gleason who was one of the youngest Raiders.
Our family of nine children grew up on the adjacent farm from the Castles, two miles west of Jet Oklahoma. They were a family of six children born 1920 to 1938 and our family, Blackledge was a family of nine children born 1921 to 1937. Most are still living as of 2011. Vernon is listed as Stillwater Oklahoma apparently because he was going to school there at Oklahoma A&M were he enlisted in the marines.
Youtube has video of the marines loading the bodies for their return trip home from the Makin atoll in 1999. Very interesting and moving as an 88 year old native who helped bury them was still living.
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6f_F...eature=related

Paul Blackledge