Dawson James Brewer

Marine Corps Regular | Service Number 402058

Born

July 9, 1924
in Maysville, KY

Parents

Francis Marion Brewer (d. 1941)
Parthenia (Collins/Plisson) Brewer

School

Details unknown

Pre-War Employment

Details unknown

Entered Service

June 16, 1942
at Cincinnati, OH

Joined First Battalion

March 28, 1944
from H&S Company, 24th Marines

Left First Battalion

July 24, 1944
Killed in action at Tinian

Left Service

July 24, 1944
Killed in action

Home Address and Next of Kin

18 Culvert Street, Cleves, OH – address of sister, Mrs. Gertrude Clark

Service & Campaigns

Before joining battalion

Boot camp at Parris Island with Fifth Recruit Battalion. Outposted to depot HQ as mess orderly.

Promoted to Assistant Cook, “CC” Mess, Parris Island, late 1942. To Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Pensacola spring of 1943. To HQ Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina summer 1944; then to HQ Company, East Coast Echelon, Fourth Marine Division on 20 July 1943.

Transferred to Headquarters Company, HQ Battalion, Fourth Marine Division late summer 1943, as cook for battalion mess.

To C/1/24th Marines on March 28, 1944.

Saipan

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: PFC
MOS: 504 (Ammunition Carrier) – machine gun platoon
Important Events:
July 8, 1944 – wounded in action (cause unknown); evacuated to field hospital.
Returned to duty before Tinian landing.

Campaign Narrative

Tinian

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: PFC
MOS: 504 (Ammunition Carrier) – machine gun platoon
Important Events:
July 24, 1944 – killed in action (gunshot, left chest) while disembarking from landing craft at White Beach One, Tinian

Campaign Narrative

Individual Decorations

Medal
Purple Heart
– with Gold Star

Campaign
Saipan (July 8, 1944)
Tinian (July 24, 1944)

Citation
—
—

Service Stories

Please share a story if you knew this Marine.

The beach [at Tinian] was so narrow we had to land in columns. Our Amtracs had to come in where the coral was, and we jumped out into water that was chest deep. A machine gunner was trying to climb over the coral wall when he got shot in the chest. I grabbed him and tried to lift him up on the coral and at the same time plug the hole in his chest with my finger. It was a big struggle in the water and finally a doc came by and told me he was gone.