Chester Lawrence McCoy

Boot camp at MCRD San Diego with the First Recruit Battalion; advanced infantry training at Camp Elliott.

Assigned to Baker Company, First Battalion, 24th Marines at Camp Pendleton on 13 December 1943.

Outfit: B/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private
MOS: 521 (Basic)

Campaign Narrative

Outfit: B/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 745 (Rifleman)
Important Events:
June 18, 1944 – wounded in action (shrapnel, left hip); evacuated to USS Solace.

[The Japanese were firing] airbursts over our heads, just same thing as a grenade going off on the ground, but they were going off in the air. When I was wounded, I was right jammed up behind a brick outhouse, and I still got hurt. I leaned against it, and I got it in the hip. I had five pieces of shrapnel, so that was the last of me on the island. I was knocked out temporarily until the corpsmen got to me, and they put me on a stretcher and carried me back to headquarters, where I stayed until they took me on to the beach.

Campaign Narrative

Did not participate in Tinian campaign due to wounds. Undergoing treatment at US Fleet Hospital #108, Guadalcanal, through 11 July 1944, at which time transferred to 16th Field Depot.

Rejoined Baker Company at Camp Maui on 15 August 1944.

There was a lot of [wounded] people on the ship, and we’d go from island to island. Each place, we’d drop off as many as that hospital could take, all the way to New Caledonia. I thought I was going to the hospital there, but when I got off and went to the hospital, they put me back aboard ship. In this time I had begun to get a lot better. It was four or five days before I could get out of my bunk.

They showed the pictures of my hip where it went in. It knocked a big hole. And they didn’t take the shrapnel out. They told me it wouldn’t bother me, but it wouldn’t work its way out because it was a large piece. The rest of them were real small. I got so I could walk, and they put me off at Guadalcanal. I stayed there for about a month, recuperating. 

Outfit: B/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 745 (Radioman)
McCoy carried the company radio.

I was the radio for my company commander. He was one of the bravest men I’ve ever met – Captain Eddy. We were on the way up the island, but they started bombarding us from Mount Suribachi. Bombs were falling everywhere, people were dropping like flies. And the captain told me, “Go see if you can get some stretchers up here.”

So I took off. I must have run for a mile without stopping. I finally got far enough back where I could find some corpsmen, and we went back up and tried to get all the wounded out. But my captain, he never hesitated while bombs were falling and men all around him were falling. He stayed on the radio, told them where the bomb was coming from.

Campaign Narrative

Transferred to Headquarters, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, on 13 June 1945 for non-combat duty with Marine Garrison Forces, Oahu.

Returned to B/1/24th Marines on 2 October 1945 for return to United States. Transferred to San Diego for processing and discharge.

Reenlisted in Marine Corps Reserve on 18 January 1951; discharged 6 January 1952 with rank of sergeant.