| NAME: Louis Acosta |
NICKNAME: — |
SERVICE NUMBER: 362825 |
|||||
| HOME OF RECORD: Creedmoor, TX |
NEXT OF KIN: Parents, Frederick & Celestina Acosta |
||||||
| DATE OF BIRTH: 11/21/1921 |
SERVICE DATES: 1/20/1942 – 1/19/1946 |
DATE OF DEATH: 4/21/1972 |
|||||
| CAMPAIGN | UNIT | MOS | RATE | RESULT | |||
| None Served | B/1/24 | 737 | Corporal | ||||
| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS: — |
LAST KNOWN RANK: Corporal |
||||||
Acosta enlisted in the Marines on January 20, 1942. After finishing his training at MCRD San Diego, he was ordered to Hawaii and proceeded to the tiny town of Pu’uene, home to a small Naval Air Station. (1) There he served with the station’s Marine barracks detachment, rising to the rank of corporal over the next two and a half years.
Corporal Acosta returned to California in July, 1944. His MOS indicates that at Pu’uene he served as a quartermaster NCO; now at Camp Pendleton’s Infantry Training Regiment, he would be taught the skills of a rifle platoon NCO. By April 1945, Acosta was qualified to lead a squad. He joined up with the 65th Replacement Draft, sailed back to Hawaii, and joined Baker Company, 24th Marines in the early summer.
Acosta trained for the invasion of Japan, but the war ended before he had a chance to see combat. After the war, he briefly returned to familiar duty at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Training Base before being discharged on January 19, 1946.
Louis Acosta settled in Austin, Texas, married a woman named Anita, and worked for several years as a mechanic and service foreman for Saeger Brothers before opening his own company – Acosta Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Service, “in Austin since 1947.” He died in 1972, and is buried in Assumption Cemetery, Austin, Texas.
NOTES:
(1) Pu’uene’s runway has been repurposed as a drag strip for a local raceway.