Hamilton Thomas Pendergast
| NAME: Hamilton Thomas Pendergast | NICKNAME: Whitey | SERVICE NUMBER: 440437 | |||||
| HOME OF RECORD: 2019 East 14th Street, Brooklyn, NY | NEXT OF KIN: Parents, John & Eileen Pendergast | ||||||
| DATE OF BIRTH: 7/6/1922 | SERVICE DATES: 8/25/1942 – 11/24/1945 | DATE OF DEATH: 6/21/2005 | |||||
| CAMPAIGN | UNIT | MOS | RATE | RESULT | |||
| Roi-Namur | D/1/24 | 605 | PFC | ||||
| Saipan | A/1/24 | 604 | PFC | WIA | |||
| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS: Purple Heart | LAST KNOWN RANK: Private First Class | ||||||
Hamilton Pendergast was born in Kings County, New York on 6 July 1922. He grew up in Brooklyn with his parents, John and Aileen, and two older siblings – half-brother John Junior, and a sister named Aileen after their mother. Hamilton graduated from high school in 1940, and went to work for the Davis Nitrate Company in Red Hook, near the Brooklyn docks. He loved baseball, and in the early 1940s was courting offers from the minor leagues.
On 25 August 1942, just two months after registering for the draft, twenty-year-old Hamilton volunteered for the Marine Corps. He shipped down to Parris Island with a group of fellow New Yorkers, and by virtue of alphabetization wound up in a recruit platoon with new Marines with names like Pramberger, Piccolomini, Pope, and Pritchett. The majority of this platoon was sent up to New River, North Carolina, and designated Company D, First Separate Battalion (Reinforced). Pendergast and his new comrades received training on heavy Browning water-cooled machine guns. He was quickly promoted to the rank of Private First Class.
The New Yorker contingent in Dog Company tended to stick together, and Pendergast became pals with a seventeen-year-old Manhattanite named Joseph Lopez DeVictoria. The two likely palled around at New River and then at Camp Pendleton, where their battalion was re-designated as the First Battalion, 24th Marines. During the summer of 1943, Hamilton Pendergast qualified as a heavy machine gunner; DeVictoria carried ammunition. They both saw combat for the first time in the battle of Roi-Namur in early February, 1944, and both emerged unscathed.
In March, Dog Company was disbanded and PFC Pendergast transferred to a new machine gun platoon in Able Company. (DeVictoria wound up in a similar platoon of Baker Company.) He continued training through the spring of 1944 at Camp Maui, in preparation for a second operation in the Mariana Islands. However, he did not last long in the upcoming battle for Saipan. The 24th Marines landed on 15 June 1944; within a few hours, “Whitey” Pendergast was back at the beach awaiting evacuation. A piece of shrapnel from a Japanese artillery shell or mortar round struck him in the left buttock, causing painful and severe damage. He was soon aboard the USS Leon for initial treatment, and wound up aboard the hospital ship USS Relief.
This wound would spell the end of Pendergast’s combat career. After recuperating at a Navy hospital in Hawaii, he was transferred to Headquarters Company, Fleet Marine Force Pacific (FMFPAC) and served out the war on light duty – working in the commandant’s department, with the company police sergeant, and even in the post laundry. He was honorably discharged on 24 November 1945, and headed back home to Brooklyn.
Whitey Pendergast married Evelyn Meza in Brooklyn on 23 February 1946. His best man was his old First Battalion buddy, Joseph DeVictoria. By chance, DeVictoria was also wounded on Saipan – an exploding mortar shell caused an intracranial injury and crippling bouts of post-traumatic stress, for which he received a disability discharge. However, he was charming enough to win over Aileen Pendergast, and the two were later married.
(Unfortunately, DeVictoria’s wartime experiences left him subject to blackouts, heavy drinking, and violent outbursts. The marriage fell apart and, in 1973, DeVictoria murdered Aileen and two others in Yucca Valley, California. He died in prison while serving a life sentence for his crimes.)
Hamilton and Evelyn settled in Massapequa, Long Island to raise a family. They eventually moved down to Virginia, where “Whitey” passed away on 21 June 2005, at the age of 82. He was buried with full military honors in Culpeper National Cemetery – under a marker reading “EASY DOES IT.”
Hamilton was my father.
This was my grandpa!!♥️♥️ Best guy ever. He is greatly missed!