Darrell P. Yawn

NAME: Darrell Preston Yawn		NICKNAME: —				SERVICE NUMBER: 913827
HOME OF RECORD: Houston, TX				NEXT OF KIN: Wife, Mrs. Doris Vance Yawn
DATE OF BIRTH: 6/13/1925		SERVICE DATES: 11/3/1943 – 1/31/1968				DATE OF DEATH: 9/2/1992
CAMPAIGN	UNIT		MOS		RATE		RESULT
Roi-Namur	C/1/24		745		PFC
Saipan	C/1/24		745		PFC		WIA
Tinian	C/1/24		745		PFC
INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS: Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal				LAST KNOWN RANK: Private First Class (World War II) First Sergeant (at retirement)

Darrell Preston Yawn was born in Cumby, Texas, on June 13, 1925. His parents, John and Claudia Yawn, eked out a living as farmers, but even with their eldest boys Wilburn and Elmo helping out with labor and odd jobs, times were difficult. The Yawns relocated first to Brazoria, then to Wharton where John’s WPA job as a tool repairman finally allowed them to settle down. “Preston” (as the youngest Yawn was called) and his older sister Doris were even able to attend high school; like many boys his age, he loved baseball and played varsity football. (1)

Times were still hard for a working-class family in Texas in 1941, so at the age of sixteen, Yawn left Boling High School and enrolled in the National Youth Association’s welding school. Although the United States was still maintaining its neutrality, there was a noticeable uptick in warlike industries, and there was no shortage of eager workers. The growing Houston Shipbuilding Corporation was more than happy to engage the services of a sixteen-year-old arc welder, and soon Darrell Yawn was spending his days affixing armor plating to a seemingly endless line of Liberty ships. The attack on Pearl Harbor increased the demand for shipbuilders tenfold;  while Yawn was probably granted an exemption from military service for his youth at first, his position as a skilled worker in a wartime industry meant he could remain safely in Houston for the foreseeable future. In all likelihood, this suited Yawn perfectly. He was reasonably paid, able to support his family, making a contribution to the war effort – and had caught the eye of Doris Josephine Vance. The two courted, married, and hoped for a family. (2)

Fate had other plans for Darrell and Doris.

Three months after the death of his infant daughter, Darrell Yawn left Houston to join the Marine Corps. He enlisted in San Antonio; after taking the oath to serve his country, Yawn was examined by the post surgeon, declared fit for service, and was on his way to California within days. (3)

Private Yawn entered boot camp at a difficult time. He arrived at Recruit Depot San Diego on November 18, 1943; two days later, the Second Marine Division invaded Tarawa. For three days, the Marines hurled themselves at the tiny island of Betio, suffering over 3,000 casualties to take an island barely large enough to hold an airstrip. News of the bloodbath had a profound effect on the nation, and particularly on the young boots already suffering at the hands of snarling drill instructors. Yawn’s Eighth Recruit Battalion had their training schedule cut to over six weeks; despite the shorter training and his lack of prior experience, Yawn proved to be a good Marine and was promoted to Private First Class upon graduation. (4)

It was a short trip from the Recruit Depot to Camp Pendleton, home of the Fourth Marine Division. PFC Yawn reported to the 24th Marines, and was assigned as a rifleman to the regiment’s First Battalion, Company C. He had next to no time to get settled; on January 11, three days after his arrival, Yawn’s unit packed up and headed for the docks, where they boarded the USS DuPage. The transport cast off on January 13 – PFC Yawn had technically entered the combat zone, having been out of boot camp for less than a week.

On February 1, 1944, the 24th Marines landed on the island of Namur in the Kwajalein atoll. The battle lasted for two days; the Marines had feared a repeat of the Tarawa fiasco, but in the words of a Company A platoon leader, “our casualties were comparatively light.” Yawn’s company lost two men killed and nearly a dozen wounded, but the young Texan emerged unscathed. As Yawn boarded the SS Robin Wentley his company’s commanding officer, Captain Horace Parks, placed his name on the list of Marines eligible for the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal.

In late February, Yawn arrived at Camp Maui, the new home of the Fourth Marine Division. For the next several months, Yawn was able to bond with his platoon mates and catch up with his training. He may have counted ahead to his semi-annual evaluation; by June 30, he would be expected to show proficiency in a twenty-six item list, which began with “individual instruction,” ended with “interior guard duty,” and included everything from firing automatic weapons to personal hygiene. It was a daunting prospect for an eighteen-year-old Marine.

On June 30, 1944, this list was the farthest thing from Darrell Yawn’s mind.

The battle of Saipan was two weeks old. Darrell Yawn – now nineteen, he had celebrated his birthday aboard yet another transport – had been fighting constantly since June 15. He was tired, hungry, and sore from a slight wound he’d received in an ambush on June 22. (5) It would take two more weeks to finally subdue the Japanese, and after a brief spell recuperating on the battlefield, Yawn’s battalion would be called upon to invade yet another island – Tinian. At last, on August 5, the Marianas campaign ended. The casualties in Charlie Company had been astronomical; PFC Yawn was one of the few Marines left from his platoon to receive his Purple Heart in a ceremony at Camp Maui that October.

Not long after receiving his decoration, Darrell Yawn was transferred out of Charlie Company. He would spend the rest of the war at Camp Maui, as a member of the Service and Supply Company of the Fourth Marine Division, helping to run the camp’s post exchange. He celebrated the end of the war with his comrades in September, 1945, and on November 9 was honorably discharged to return to Texas. On his green dress uniform, he wore the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign ribbon, and the Asia-Pacific Campaign ribbon with three stars.

Two years later, Darrell and Doris were living in Galena Park, Texas. He was back to metalworking, but found that he missed the structure of the military, and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in January, 1948. It was a natural fit; as the months turned into years, the officers of the 14th Infantry Battalion promoted Darrell Yawn to corporal, and then to sergeant. (6) When his second tour expired in January 1953, Yawn opted to re-enlist for an “indefinite period.” He was now a career Marine.

Yawn saw action at the very tail end of the Korean War; as a staff sergeant, he served in combat with Company F, Second Battalion, 7th Marines from July 11 until the signing of the armistice on July 27, 1953, and remained in-country through September, 1954. (7) The following year, Yawn reported to Parris Island for training as a recruiter, and in February, 1956, reported to his new duty station.

These articles appeared in the Schenectady Gazette on February 13 and February 23, 1956.

The dashing sergeant in his dress blues and rows of ribbons married twenty-year-old Betty Jane Wadd later that year, and quickly became a familiar face in New York’s capital region as the NCO in charge of the Marine recruiting station in Amsterdam.

In 1959, Darrell and Betty moved their family out to California; Gunnery Sergeant Yawn was back on duty with the Fleet Marine Force. From July of that year until August 1963, Yawn served with the First Marine Division as a senior NCO with the Seventh, Third, and Fifth Marines; finally, he returned to the staff of Camp Pendleton. Twenty-five years had passed since he’d first shipped out for combat as a teenager; it seemed fitting that Yawn should end his career as an instructor for another generation of young Marines bound for combat across the Pacific.

On July 31, 1968, First Sergeant Yawn was placed on inactive duty; his retirement was made official on February 1, 1976 – thirty-two years to the day after he first fought the Japanese on the island of Namur.

First Sergeant Yawn’s ribbons. (8)

Darrell Yawn retired to Pattersonville, New York, to be with his family. Sadly, Betty died in 1989; Darrell returned to Texas in 1991, and settled in the town of Boerne. He died of lung cancer on September 2, 1992, at the age of 67.

Today, Darrell Yawn is buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.

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NOTES:
(1) In 1940, the Yawn family consisted of John, Claudia, Wilburn, Elmo, Doris, and Preston; two other siblings, Eugene and Lucille, had married and started families. The older sons were considerably older than Preston – 20 and 16 years older, respectively. Neither Wilburn nor Elmo advanced past the sixth grade; Preston was one of the first in his family to attend high school.
(2) The Houston City Directory of 1942 misidentifies Darrell as “Gerald P. Yawn” – he and Doris lived at 204 Greenwood Avenue, apartment #3.
(3) At the time of his enlistment, Darrell Yawn was described as having blue eyes, blond hair, and a ruddy complexion; he was 5’9″ tall and weighed 130 pounds.
(4) Marines received marks on a scale of 1 to 5 for their abilities: to be considered for promotion, Yawn needed (and acquired) good marks in “Military Efficiency” (3.5), “Neatness & Military Bearing” (3.5), “Intelligence” (3.5), “Obedience” (5) and “Sobriety” (5). He also scored a 269 with the M1 rifle (qualifying as a marksman) and earned “familiar” with the M1 carbine and the bayonet.
(5) The specifics of Yawn’s wound are unknown; it was not recorded in the battalion’s muster roll and there is no indication that he spent any time off the lines. His reenlistment paperwork shows a large scar on his right shoulder in 1948 that was not present in 1943; this may have been the result of his Saipan wound.
(6) In 1952, Darrell Yawn also received his G. E. D.
(7) In November, 1954, Darrell Yawn stopped payment allocations to Doris Yawn. They appear to have separated around this time.
(8) By the time of his retirement, Yawn was eligible to wear the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Commendation, the Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asia-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, Naval Occupation Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. He was also rated as an expert with the rifle and the pistol.