Taps, 2014

Frank Vargas	Venon Ison	Dale Noyes	Norman Lucas	David Hagerbaumer	J. Murray Fox	Donald Kardok
Carl Weber	William Collis	Alfred Eskildsen	Carroll Stout	Kenneth Whitehurst	George May	Chester Hodge
		Andrew Paleveda		Vincent Treccagnoli

Semper Fi.

Frank Hernandez Vargas
(August 20, 1924 – January 5, 2014)

Chicago-born Frank Vargas joined the Marine Corps at the age of eighteen, trained at MCRD San Diego and Camp Elliott’s infantry school, and joined B/1/24 on August 26, 1943 – the day after the birth of the Fourth Marine Division. He served as a rifleman, and was grievously wounded in his company’s first battle on Namur in the Marshall Islands. PFC Vargas spent the next year in a succession of naval hospitals, every transfer bringing him closer to home – from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor, Memphis to Great Lakes, Illinois. He was released from the service for reasons of disability early in 1945. Mr. Vargas went on to raise a family in Illinois, becoming a great grandfather and a popular figure in the community. He is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois.

Venon Harrison “Vic” Ison
(November 19, 1923 – January 13, 2014)

Vic Ison’s long military career began in the summer of 1940. High school was behind him, and there was no money for college, so the 17-year-old Cumberland, Kentucky native stuck out his thumb and hitchhiked to Cincinnati to enlist in the Marine Corps. He showed great aptitude early on, being selected for sea duty aboard the venerable battleship USS Wyoming and the destroyer tender USS Alcor. PFC Ison was a “plank owner” in Company D, First Separate Battalion (Reinforced), and by the time the company became D/1/24 was rated as a squad leader. The young Marine had many close calls while fighting on Namur (D Company), Saipan (HQ Company), and Tinian (B Company) respectively; the closest was being wounded by a sniper while on a volunteer patrol to recover fallen comrades (“We got the bodies out anyway”). Later, as a member of the Fourth Amphibious Truck Company, Ison suffered a concussion while splashing ashore on Iwo Jima, and wound up sharing part of his foxhole with an unexpected visitor – a shot-up B-29 bomber that crash landed, barely missing the startled corporal.

Ison left the Marines in 1946 as a sergeant. He had not forgotten his goal of higher education, and applied for Special Services school, but the Korean War pulled him away from his new career and back into the military. This time, he joined the Army and received a lieutenant’s commission. Ison suffered a crushed pelvis in a jeep wreck while overseas, but remained in the Army through 1962, retiring as a major. After leaving the service, Ison settled in Georgia, where he spent 25 years in State government and raised a family with his second wife, Frances. Major Ison is buried in Lawnwood Memorial Park, Covington, Georgia.

Dale Henry Noyes
(January 21, 1923 – January 17, 2014)

Dale Noyes was an Iowa boy through and through. Born and raised on his great-grandfather’s farm in Victor, he attended Marengo High School (class of 1941) and married Jane Furlong on Ladora in 1943. He would have been quite happy to stay on the farm for the rest of his days, but the Iowa County draft board had other ideas, and Noyes was inducted into the Marine Corps in 1944. A talented marksman, he earned a rifle sharpshooter’s badge in boot camp, but was trained as an anti-tank gunner before receiving his assignment to the 24th Replacement Draft. Private Noyes joined C/1/24 on February 24, 1945 – D+5 on Iwo Jima – and served with them for less than a week before being badly wounded in an assault on the “Meat Grinder” in March. His few days on Iwo resulted in a four-month hospitalization. After his recovery, Noyes was reassigned to Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he worked with the rifle range detachment until his honorable discharge in 1946. With his Pacific adventures behind him, Noyes immediately returned to Iowa County and rarely left again. He worked the family farm, put in some time at a local auto parts store, and involved himself in a number of community activities. He raised two sons with Jane; their marriage lasted until her death in 1994. Dale lived on at the farm with his second wife, Shirley, until 2012. He is buried in Koszta Cemetery, Iowa County, Iowa.

Norman M. Lucas
(July 16, 1925 – January 20, 2014)

Norman Lucas was inspired to join the Marine Corps when word of the fall of Wake Island reached his hometown of Knox, Indiana. Too young to enlist immediately, Lucas had to wait until February 1943 to join up, and was finally called to active duty in May. He would be away from home, without furlough, for the next three years. Lucas learned the job of a 60mm mortarman at Camp Elliott and Camp Pendleton with C/1/24, and shortly before deploying overseas was promoted to Private First Class – a rate jokingly referred to as “Praying For Corporal,” but which Lucas quipped “meant Praying For Civilian.” He first saw action on Namur, but did not see an enemy up close until Saipan, when a group of Japanese infiltrated the lines and Lucas had to fire back with his carbine. “They gave us fire from out of a cane field, and that’s when I dropped my first one,” he recalled for an interviewer. “I shook like a leaf every time I killed one, until I got three of ’em. I quit shaking then.” Although he “shared a grenade” on Saipan, the wound “was just fragments under the skin.” Not so on Iwo Jima, where “they finally tagged me” with a mortar shell that nearly took Lucas’ leg off. It was the end of the war for Lucas – though he kept his leg, he was left with a permanent disability. He spent the rest of his time in the service on mess duty at Camp Catlin and “running damned Australians all over the hills of Hawaii” as an MP before returning to Knox. Lucas bought a house with his terminal leave pay, married and had a daughter, but divorced in 1947. In the years after the war, he attended Indiana University, worked for the state board of health and Studebaker of South Bend, sold and distributed candy bars and cookies, and owned the Lucas Division of Enterprise Trucking. His second wife, Wilma, predeceased him in 2007. Norman Lucas is buried in McCool Cemetery, Portage, Indiana.

David Warren Hagerbaumer
(January 31, 1921 – February 23, 2014)

David Hagerbaumer was born and raised in Quincy, Illinois. Although he enlisted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served through the entire war, seeing action at Midway and rising to the rank of sergeant, Mr. Hagenbaumer’s Marine service was a footnote in an extraordinary life. (He was with 1/24 only briefly, joining Charlie Company as a machine gun squad leader on August 6, 1945.) A wonderfully gifted wildlife artist, David Hagerbaumer attended San Diego State College while working as a staff artist and assistant ornithologist at the Carson City Museum, as well as operating his own business, Custom-Bilt Decoys, making hand-carved ducks for hunters. Recalled for duty in the Korean War, Sergeant Hagerbaumer served a second hitch as a mapmaker and propaganda artist. Following his second and final discharge, he returned to his painting, achieving local success in California before being discovered by Crossroads of Sports. Mr. Hagerbaumer went on to a successful fifty-year career, during which time he published several books and created nearly 3,000 paintings. (The Skagit Valley Herald and Russell Fink Gallery have excellent descriptions of his artistic career.) His burial site is currently unknown.

John Murray Fox
(September 23, 1920 – March 22, 2014)

Initially, Murray Fox had no intention of joining the Marine Corps – he wanted to go into the Foreign Service, and his educational pedigree at the Worcester Academy and Georgetown was the perfect ticket. However, the “razzle dazzle mess” of December 1941 forced the decision and Fox, whose time at Georgetown included ROTC and rifle training approved of “the clean and dirty attitude of the Marine Corps toward the enemy… that was exactly what I wanted.” As a lieutenant with Charlie Company, 24th Marines, Fox specialized with mortars and led the company’s weapons platoon in 1943 (a counterpart and good friend of the webmaster’s own ancestor in Able Company, Lt. Phil Wood). Fox was introduced to combat at Roi-Namur – he quickly learned the value of carrying two canteens, one of water and one of something a bit stronger to share with his men – and had his leadership skills tested on Saipan, where in addition to his mortarmen he took charge of a rifle platoon early in the battle. A bullet creased his scalp while landing on Tinian, but Fox felt safer on the front lines and immediately returned to lead a combat patrol that accounted for a score of Japanese soldiers. For this feat, he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Lieutenant Fox led the battalion’s 81mm mortar platoon on Iwo Jima until officer casualties caused a wholesale reshuffling of responsibilities, and he wound up in command of the battalion’s headquarters company. Although he suffered a broken foot during the battle, he survived the Marines’ biggest battle “weary of mind and with tears in his heart.” Fox received a long-overdue promotion to Captain and a reassignment to the regiment’s Headquarters and Service Company as a reward for four hard-fought campaigns. It was “with absolute pleasure” that he returned to civilian life in 1946. (Murray Fox remained in the Marine Corps Reserve through the 1950s, and eventually retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. For a lengthy interview about his time in the service, see Honoring our Marin Veterans.)

Fox led a busy life after the war: according to his obituary, he “worked for US Lines, American President Lines, Sea Land, and Matson Navigation, specializing in Far Eastern trade. Murray and his partners established a transportation consulting firm, Muller, Fox and Pennington, where they worked on port development and design in the United States and more than 14 countries worldwide. He served as Executive Secretary of the Pacific Agricultural Cooperative for Export and the Executive Director of the American Frozen Food Export Association.” Somehow he found the time to marry, raise a family, and travel the world. Late in his life, he retired to the Tamalpais in Greenbrae, California (where I was lucky enough to communicate with him a few times, both personally and through the kindness of Murray’s friend Phil Sheridan). His burial site is currently unknown.

Donald Kardok
(July 29, 1926 – April 15, 2014)

Don Kardok was barely seventeen years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. After serving as a guard at the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC, he was sent out to the Pacific to become a member of A/1/24’s machine gun platoon. A bad wound suffered on Iwo Jima marked the end of his combat career and the start of a long series of surgeries and years of physical rehabilitation. His recovery was ultimately so successful that Kardok competed on the track team at Moorehead State College, earned a master’s degree in Physical Education and Medicine from Columbia, and went on to compete both nationally and internationally in track and field, even co-holding the world record for the men’s over-30 high jump for a time. The aptly-nicknamed “Coach” Kardok had a long career as Director of Athletics at Fountain Valley, Colorado. (For a full obituary on Coach Kardok, please visit The Gazette – and for a slideshow tribute, please see “Don Kardok Celebration of Life.”) He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Carl Weber
(November 28, 1925 – April 20, 2014)

Born to German immigrant parents in Detroit and raised in Los Angeles, Carl Weber was sixteen at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. He completed his sophomore year of high school before taking inspiration from a relative and joining the Marine Corps. Less than three months after enlisting, rifleman Weber was on his way overseas with the Fourth Signal Battalion. In February 1944, he was assigned as a replacement to Company B, 24th Marines. Private Weber fought on Saipan, spending a memorably terrible night pinned beneath the body of his sergeant during a mortar attack, and was shot in the chest by a Japanese sniper on the final day of the battle. His recuperation, which required the removal of portions of his lung and rib, was made more memorable by a hospital visit from President Roosevelt, General MacArthur, and Admiral Nimitz, during which Weber received his Purple Heart. After the war, Carl married Fran Tullius, raised three children, and worked as a machinist and real estate broker before retiring to Atascardero in 1984. Read Carl’s obituary in the Daily Breeze, or visit a family tree with a wonderful interview by Audrey Weber at Ancestry.com.

William J. Collis
(June 5, 1922 – April 25, 2014)

Bill Collis joined the Marines at the age of twenty; he was a member of the First Separate Battalion (Reinforced) at New River before the formation of the 24th Marines or the Fourth Marine Division. He trained as a heavy machine gunner with the battalion’s Company D, and fought with them in the battle of Namur. In a somewhat unusual turn of events, PFC Collis was chosen to become a scout – an avid hunter and outdoorsman in his native Cohoes, New York, he now put his skills to use with the regimental recon platoon. The higher-ups took note of Collis’ performance and intelligence, and after the Marianas campaign Collis was plucked from his platoon and dispatched back to the States to attend officer training. Collis opted for the Navy V-12 program, enrolled at Colgate, and graduated with the class of 1948. He worked as a health care professional for private and state-run enterprises, spending most of his remaining days in the Cohoes area. Until the day he died, Collis was “a Marine, first and foremost” holding life memberships in the Troy Detachment MCL (he served as honorary commandant and was on the shooting team), the Fourth Marine Division Association, and the VFW. He is buried in General B. H. Solomon – Saratoga National Cemetery.

Alfred Eskildsen
(March 15, 1923 – June 24, 2014)

Born to Eskild and Anna Larsen on March 15, 1923, “Esky” was raised in Stambaugh, Michigan, in a huge family of twenty siblings. His older brother William joined the Marines before the war, and on September 11, 1942, Esky followed in his footsteps. The nineteen-year-old became a machine gunner in Second Platoon, Company D, and first saw combat on the island of Namur in February, 1944. There, he had an unexpected reunion with Platoon Sergeant William Eskildsen, whose 15th Defense Battalion moved in to garrison the islands.

Esky was then reassigned to Company B. His MOS changed from that of machine gunner to automatic rifleman, and he fought for two days in the battle of Saipan before a serious leg wound sent him to Fleet Hospital #108 on Guadalcanal. By October, PFC Eskildsen was back with his company and training for the invasion of Iwo Jima – he had a happy reunion with his foxhole buddy, PFC Charles Earl Brown.

Eskildsen was wounded a second time on Iwo Jima – once again, only two days into the battle – and was sent back to the hospital at Aiea Heights, Hawaii. It was the end of his combat career, and Esky remained under medical care until his discharge from USNTC Great Lakes on October 31, 1945.

While recuperating in Chicago, Alfred Eskildsen met Betty Laurienc; they were married in 1946. He began a career as a carpenter, and in 1954 relocated to Peoria to work for Chuck Brown Builders, a company headed by his old foxhole buddy. The Eskildsens made Peoria their home for the next sixty years, raising a family while Alfred grew to love bowling, dancing, barbecuing, and hunting with his brother Herb up in Montana.

Betty Eskildsen passed away on June 9, 2014, and Alfred followed just two weeks later, on June 24.

Carroll Eldridge Stout
(August 3, 1925 – July 12, 2014)

Carroll Eldridge Stout was a home-grown Tennessee mountain boy, born August 3, 1925 to Asa and Eula Stout. The Stout name was well known in Johnson County during the depression years, and Carroll’s branch made a modest living on a fifty-acre farm which in 1942 boasted three horses, 9 cows, 3 hogs, and 50 chickens. Stout men worked the farm or at factories in nearby Elizabethton; the women were housekeepers. The Tennessee Valley Authority came to survey the house in 1942 and found that “This is one of the most attractive homes in the community. It is a six-room weatherboarded house, three years old, in a good state of repair, well kept and well furnished. They have a nice well-kept lawn with flowers, shrubs, and young shade trees. The house has electric lights and electrical equipment. From all general appearances the family is in good health, well clothed, and clean.” The only quibble the government men had was Mrs. Stout’s habit “of a great many mountain people – dipping snuff.” (The house was in the path of a planned TVA dam; the Stout family simply moved the house intact to a point above the new waterline.)

Such was the atmosphere in which Carroll left for war. After completing his training, he was assigned to Company B, 1/24, and within four days was on his way to combat on Namur. Private Stout served as a rifleman in the Marshall Islands, on Saipan (where he was slightly wounded) and on Tinian. In the fall of 1944, he was reassigned to battalion headquarters to serve with the medical detachment as a combination warrior and stretcher bearer.

Stout was wounded in action on March 8, 1945, and sent to Hawaii to recuperate. He spent the remainder of the war with the 6th MP Battalion in Hawaii, and was discharged with the rank of corporal on January 5, 1946. Following the war, Stout returned to Johnson County and was content to live out his life there, working for Burlington Industries and raising a family with his wife, Alice, who followed him in death this past October 14. He is buried in Sunset Memorial Park, Mountain City, Tennessee.

Kenneth Whitehurst
(July 26, 1923 – August 23, 2014)

Kenneth Whitehurst was a military-minded man even before the war broke out – the Washington, DC-born youth attended Fishburne MIlitary High School and hoped to become an officer when he joined the Marine Corps in 1942. Within days of enlisting got himself assigned to the Platoon Leader’s Unit in Philadelphia. However, like many ambitious young servicemen, he would have to put his goal on hold and work his way up through the ranks – six months later, he was at Parris Island, just another boot in the Tenth Recruit Battalion. Whitehurst earned three honors after boot camp: a sharpshooter’s badge, a promotion to Private First Class, and immediate assignment to the Recruit Depot’s garrison as a drill instructor.

PFC Whitehurst practiced his leadership on hapless recruits for several months before receiving orders to the West Coast. He joined Company A, 24th Marines as a BAR gunner in September, 1943, and would see action with them in the battles of Namur, Saipan, and Tinian. The Marianas campaign would be his last: his officers learned of his goals, recognized his abilities, and sent him to Quantico for another shot at earning a commission. In the early spring of 1945, Second Lieutenant Whitehurst received his bars. His career would continue through 1958, and Whitehurst retired from the service as a major.

Following his retirement from active duty, Major Whitehurst worked as a consultant for Consumer Reports, married, raised a family, and maintained memberships in a number of veteran’s associations. He passed away in Melbourne, Florida, aged 91.

George L. May
(October 11, 1923 – September 14, 2014)

George May spent nearly his entire life in Ocala, Florida, with two major exceptions – the first two years of his life (spent in Portsmouth, Ohio) and three years in the 1940s, spent with the Marine Corps. He trained at MCRD San Diego – an outbreak of measles at Parris Island meant that many East Coast men had to travel to California for boot camp – and May himself was hospitalized (for unknown reasons) shortly after reporting to the depot. Dropped from his original recruit platoon, he had to re-start the entire training process after three months on the sick list. Happily, he made a full recovery, completed training, and was assigned to Company B, 24th Marines as a messenger in the fall of 1943. George May served in all four of the Fourth Marine Division’s battles and survived wounds suffered on Tinian and Iwo Jima. He spent the war’s closing months as a guard at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, and following his discharge became a notable figure in Florida’s thoroughbred industry. (According to his obituary, George May was nominated for the Medal of Honor and received a Silver Star, however his citation has not yet been located by the webmaster. If you have further information, please contact me.)

Chester Roosevelt Hodge
(November 27, 1922 – November 26, 2014)

Chester Hodge was born in Vichy, Missouri, the second of fourteen children and one of eleven brothers to serve in the military – a national record the Hodge family still holds today. His time in the CCCs prepared him for Marine service, which he entered in March, 1943. Private Hodge was assigned to Company B, 24th Marines that August and trained hard for combat, but was hospitalized just days before his company shipped out for the invasion of Namur in the Marshall Islands. This mishap may have saved his life, as Company B took unusually heavy casualties in their first battle. Hodge became a casualty himself on Saipan just two days into the fight; he was evacuated for treatment and eventually re-joined the company at Camp Maui. He was wounded a second time on Iwo Jima, spent four months in Navy hospitals, and a further year on Stateside duty before receiving his honorable discharge. Hodge married Grace Humphreys in 1945, and they raised a family in east Tennessee while Hodge worked for the Mountain Home Veterans Administration. His full obituary appears in the Elizabethton Star.

Andrew Joseph Paleveda
(October 11, 1921 – December 6, 2014)

“Joe” Paleveda, a lifelong resident of Tampa, Florida, joined the Marine Corps in May, 1942. After completing the infamously rigorous training at Parris Island, Paleveda was retained as a recruit instructor, and spent the next nine months shaping civilians into Marines. In the summer of 1943, he joined a contingent of instructors ordered west to join the Fourth Marine Division. Corporal Paleveda became a squad leader with Charlie Company, 24th Marines, but a two-month hospitalization at Naval Hospital Santa Margarita meant he missed shipping out for combat with his company. Although he rejoined 1/24 at Camp Maui and trained for further operations, Paleveda saw no combat with his division, and instead remained with the rear-echelon staff of the training camp, specializing in running and maintaining the film projectors used for entertainment and training films. He was honorably discharged in 1945, and returned to Florida.

In the years after the war, Paleveda was drafted by the New York Yankees and played ball in the minor leagues; although he gave up a professional career to work for the family printing business following his father’s death, he continued to play locally for the Tampa Smokers and his lifelong love of the game kept him playing softball into his eighties. The patriarch of a large family, Paleveda was also known for his musical, artistic, and linguistic talents as well as his natural ability to entertain. Joe Paleveda is buried in Myrtle Hill Memorial Park in his hometown of Tampa.

Vincent J. Treccagnoli
(May 22, 1925 – date unknown, 2014)

Vincent Treccagnoli of Brookyn, NY enlisted February 16, 1943. After completing boot camp, he served as a guard at Naval Air Station Richmond, Florida, then transferred to the Pacific as a replacement for the Second Marine Division. Treccagnoli was temporarily attached to C/1/24th Marines for the duration of the Tinian campaign, after which he joined L/3/2 on Saipan. Aside from a diversion off Okinawa in 1945, Treccagnoli spent the rest of the war in garrison duty on Saipan, and was discharged in January, 1946 with the rank of corporal. He was recalled to duty during the Korean War, and served with the Second Marines at Camp Lejeune from 1950 to 1952, retiring as a sergeant. Mr. Treccagnoli died in Lake Worth, Florida, and is buried in South Florida National Cemetery.