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| Corporal Chester Jensen served in the 1st Marine Regiment on Guadalcanal and died during the attack across the Matanikau River. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51499874&ref=acom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_Campaign |
Chester Jensen never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 9, 1917 in Wisconsin. His parents were both born in Denmark. His father worked as a farmer and later as a tile layer before returning to farming. Chester had an older sister and a younger sister.
Chester joined the Marines on January 17, 1938. He eventual rose to the rank of corporal in Company B, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. Early in his service he was stationed in China but it appears that before the war started he was brought stateside for fill out noncom positions when the 1st Marine Division was created in early 1941.
The 1st Marine Regiment was one of the first American units to take the fight to the enemy when it landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. The Marines quickly captured Henderson Field and set up defensive positions to defend it from Japanese counterattack.
By late September, the Marines were ready to go on the offensive. Repulsed Japanese troops were located on the east side of the Matanikau River. The American operation was to attack to keep them from consolidating for another assault on Henderson Field. The marines took heavy casualties and three Marine companies were cut off and only an amphibious withdrawal saved it from worse losses. Corporal Jensen died in the midst of this part of the battle on September 25, 1942 along with 16 other men from his regiment that day.
His grave is at Salem Mound Cemetery in Salem, Wisconsin.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY. Now more than 200 fallen have been profiled with more than 200,000 visits. Is there interest in seeing a similar video highlighting those from the group of second 100?
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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