Venon “Vic” Ison, former member of First Battalion, 24th Marines, passed away on January 13 at the age of ninety.
Born in Cumberland, Kentucky and raised by Nick and Jane Ison, Venon joined the Marine Corps in 1940 at the age of sixteen; he had wanted to go to college, but his family couldn’t afford the tuition. After completing boot camp, Ison became a member of the Marine detachment of the battleship USS Wyoming (which he was aboard when Pearl Harbor was attacked), and also served aboard the destroyer tender USS Alcor before being posted to Company D, 24th Marines. As a private first class, Ison served as a squad leader in the battle of Namur, then joined the battalion headquarters company in the spring of 1944.
During the battle of Saipan, PFC Ison volunteered to join a patrol to recover the bodies of fallen American troops. Though he was hit by an enemy sniper, Ison stuck to his mission; he would later comment only that “We got the bodies out, anyway.” For his courage, Ison was promoted to corporal; for his wounds, he received the Purple Heart.
Following the campaign for Tinian, Corporal Ison was transferred out of the battalion. He joined the Fourth Amphibian Truck Company; if there was any hope that this new position would be safer, it was quickly dashed in the invasion of Iwo Jima. On D-Day, Ison’s truck was hit; he woke up floating in the surf with a bad concussion. After being patched up, Ison went back to the island, where he had a second close call; a damaged B-29 overshot the runway on Motoyama Airfield and plowed into his foxhole. Ison survived the war and mustered out in 1946 as a sergeant.
Instead of attending college, Ison applied for Special Services school, but dropped out to join the Army for the Korean War. Commissioned as a first lieutenant, he was on the ground in Korea when the jeep in which he was riding was hit by artillery fire. Ison’s pelvis was crushed, and his recovery was long and painful. However, he returned to the Army, and eventually retired with the rank of major.
For the next 25 years, Ison worked with the Georgia state government. He retired in 1988.
For a full obituary, please visit the Rockdale Citizen; for an interview with Mr. Ison, see the Rockdale News.