Gone for Soldiers: Charles Russell Durfee (1918 - 1944) Marine

Charles Durfee is a fourth cousin, once removed, from my great great grandmother Martha Heath Hardy's line. The common ancestor we both share is John H. Hardy whose 1854 Alabama will I covered last week.

The Hardy clan moved from Alabama to Texas after the Civil War and most stayed there but somehow his mother Anna found her way to South Dakota where she married Aaron B. Durfee in 1916. Charles, their second child, was born two years later.

Charles was listed as a midshipman at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, appointed on June 11, 1938, from North Dakota.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.]

He entered the Marine Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant in January of 1942 and was raised to the temporary rank of Captain a year later, serving in the Pacific Theater where he distinguished himself at the Battle of Tarawa, winning the Navy Cross.

[13 Mar 1944, Page 4 - Rapid City Journal at Newspapers.com]

Three months later he was killed during the invasion of Saipan and was awarded the Silver Star posthumously.

[12 Jul 1944, Page 4 - Rapid City Journal at Newspapers.com]

Here's a U.S. Army film about the assault on Saipan.

[Battle of Saipan, Marianas Islands 1944 (1949) US Army; Pacific Island Hopping, World War II]

Here are the details of his actions as given in the citations for the medals:

[Found on the website The Military Times Hall of Valor Project]

He's buried in the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962. Interment Control Forms, A1 2110-B. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland.]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: George Logan "Pete" Slater (1886 - 1957), Marine Corps, Continued

Following up on my previous post about my grand uncle: After short postings to the Marine Barracks at the Naval Station in Key West, Florida, and at the Naval Ammunition Depot on Iona Island, New York,* in November of 1918 Pete was sent to Fort Crockett in Galveston, Texas, and promoted to Corporal. 

[Ft. Crockett, Galveston, Tex., 1918, Camp site, Coast Artillery Corps and U.S. Marine Corps | Library of Congress]

Corporal Slater was transferred to the Headquarters, Overseas Depot in Quantico, Virginia, in July, 1918, after eight months in Texas. The following month he was attached to Company "D" Fourth Separate Battalion U S M C, Brest, France. The troops left Quantico on Friday, September 13, 1918, and on September 15, 1918, sailed from Hoboken, N. J., on board the HENDERSON** and VON STEUBEN, arriving at France on September 25, 1918.*** 

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798-1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C.]

[U.S.S. Henderson, 22 April 1918, U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Source: ibiblio.org]

While in France, Pete served with several companies of the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines during his tour of duty, beginning in Companies "G" and "L" and he was promoted to Sergeant while in Company "K" in December 1918.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798-1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C.]

Although the recruiting posters continued to glorify war, the reality was quite different.

[First in France--U.S. Marines / John A. Coughlin. 1917, Library of Congress]

["Scott Belleau Wood". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_Belleau_Wood.jpg#/media/File:Scott_Belleau_Wood.jpg]

It isn't clear to me what actual battlefield experience Pete endured during the nearly ten months he was in France. But he arrived just as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive began which was the largest operation the American Expeditionary Forces undertook during World War I and since it continued until the Armistice on November 11, 1918, it's unlikely that he wasn't one of the 1.2 million American soldiers and Marines who took part in it.

["All their Weary Marches Done, All their Battles Fought and Won" American Dead in the Meuse-Argonne. Stereo copyrighted by the Keystone View Co. Library of Congress]

In August 1919, Sergeant George L. Slater was transferred back to Quantico, Virginia, attached to the 5th Reserve Casual Company.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798-1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C.]

His war was over, although he still had to remain a Marine until his four-year term of enlistment ended at the beginning of December in 1919. For some unknown military reason he actually wasn't released from the service until 34 days later on January 10, 1920, so he's in the U.S. Census as a Marine Sergeant.****

[Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.]

[Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

Back home in Colorado, Pete went into business with his brother Harry (my grandfather).

[Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

Sometime before 1930 he married a second time, to Evalyn M. Baer Atkins***** and helped raise her two children, although he never had any kids of his own. In 1934 and 1936 he ran for U.S. Congress for Colorado's Third District as a Socialist.

[Pete & Evalyn & "My cousin Mrs Purdue" Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

Pete died on June 11, 1957, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Longmont, Boulder County, Colorado, under a stone honoring his military service.

[U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963. Original data from: The National Archives. Source: Fold3.com]

*Iona Island has had an interesting history you can read about here. It's now part of Bear Mountain State Park.
**The U.S.S. Henderson had just received a "dazzle" camouflage treatment. (For more and crazier examples go here.)
***Details of the sailing information was found here; this site has a huge amount of information about the Marine Corps in World War I. For a briefer history of the conflict from the Marine perspective, look here.
****During this period Pete married for the first time, but since no one knows what her name is it's clear that it didn't work out.
*****Pete and Evalyn were quite a couple. Someday I'll share some of the stories that have come to me about them (and Jake the magpie).


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: George Logan "Pete" Slater (1886 - 1957), Marine Corps

Perhaps inspired by recruiting posters like the one below, my maternal grand uncle Pete Slater* enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in Denver, Colorado, on December 1, 1915, at the age of 29 and underwent his basic training at Mare Island, in Vallejo, California.

[U.S. Marines - "Soldiers of the sea" Good pay - foreign travel - congenial employment, c1914;

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. ]

[By Unknown or not provided (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

[Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

By May of 1916, Private Slater was on his way to Pearl Harbor on the transport ship "Thomas" where he remained for a few months.** Then he got sick and was transferred back to Mare Island in November of that year via the USAT "Sherman." 

["USAT Thomas" Kentucky Historical Society Photo]

["USAT Sherman" Viola (Grilnberger) Connelly Collection; Presidio Army Museum, National Park System.]

By the end of 1916, Pete was in the U.S. Naval Hospital, at Fort Lyons,*** Las Animes, Colorado. But although Pete still wasn't well, he must not been diagnosed with T.B. because he was soon transferred to the several different posts on the East Coast before being sent back to Mare Island, where in October of 1917 he was promoted to Corporal.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798-1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C.]

After several more transfers around the U.S. (and almost certainly more training) Pete was sent to France as part of American Expeditionary Forces in France.

[Pete Slater, 1918; courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

Next time I will try to sort out what Pete did during his service in World War I.


*The oldest child of my great grandparents Lewis Logan Slater (1855-1905) and Rufina Ellen Tomlinson (1863-1943).
**From the U.S. Marine Corps Muster Records it doesn't appear that he ever made it to the Far East.
***Which operated as a tuberculosis treatment center from 1906 to 1922.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.