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| Marine Sergeant Vernon Wells and his brother Dean who served in the Navy. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51966640 |
Vernon S. Wells never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on October 7, 1917 in Iowa. His parents Orlan and Mabel were also both born in Iowa. His father worked as a farmer. Vernon had two older brothers, two younger brothers, and a younger sister. All but the youngest brother served in the war -- two in the Navy and one in the Army. They all came home.
He enlisted in the Marines on November 26, 1940. He was stationed in Iceland, of all places, when the war started. He was reassigned to serve in the Pacific as a sergeant in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division by November 1942. He fought on Guadalcanal in early 1943.
On November 21, 1943 Sgt. Wells and his company took part in the amphibious landing on Tarawa on D+1. His unit took on the brunt of the fighting because of the high casualties suffered on the first day. The battle took four days, the first experience of fighting an enemy that would fight to the last man. Sgt. Wells died on November 27, 1943, most likely from wounds sustained during the Battle of Tarawa. He was one of 99 men from the 6th Marine Regiment killed during the battle.
His grave is at Charlton Cemetery in Iowa.
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!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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