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| PFC Thomas Dougherty served with the 3rd Marine Division in the battle to retake Guam. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94433931/thomas-patrick-dougherty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guam_(1944) |
Private First Class Thomas Patrick Dougherty, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
PFC Dougherty, a native of Baltimore, was killed in action at the age of 23 on July 22, 1944 during the invasion to retake Guam from the Japanese. He was serving with Company G., 2nd Battalion, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division.
He was born August 25, 1920 in Baltimore, the only child of Thomas Patrick Dougherty, Sr., and Edna M. Cole Dougherty. His father, who served in World War I and was slightly wounded, was employed at the Maryland State Penitentiary. His parents separated when he was young, and at the time of the 1930 census, when he was nine, he was living with his mother and maternal grandmother. His mother was a saleslady in a clothing store in 1930. In the 1940 census she is a machine operator at a clothing manufacturing plant, and Thomas was a salesman of electrical supplies.
He attended Forest Park High School in Baltimore. His draft registration in February 1942 shows him employed as a dispatcher with the Pennsylvania Railroad and married to Audrey Elizabeth Dougherty. They were married between 1940 and 1942. He enlisted on September 22, 1942 and went overseas in February 1943.
Japanese forces had overrun the American garrison on Guam December 8-10, 1941, the first three days after Pearl Harbor. The 1944 battle to recapture Guam was one of the bloodiest engagements of the Allied “island hopping” campaign. The invasion was preceded by three days of naval and air bombardment from 274 ships and 13 aircraft carriers. PFC Dougherty’s unit, the 3rd Marine Division, killed an estimated 5,000 Japanese and sustained 677 Marines killed, 3,626 wounded, and nine missing. He was killed on the second day of the three-week battle.
He was initially buried on Guam, and his remains were repatriated in 1948. He is interred at the Parkwood Cemetery and Mausoleum in Baltimore. His mother passed away in 1973.
Thank you, PFC Thomas Patrick Dougherty for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Thomas.
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This profile was written by John F. Schlatter. “I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee and a retired corporate public relations manager, living in Las Vegas. I served as an active duty and reserve Army officer 1974-82. I’ve written two books about veterans. One tells the stories of WWII veterans through postcards they wrote to the folks back home, and the other honors about 50 of the 168 Americans who died in Vietnam on the Fourth of July. I’ve also been a volunteer in the effort to find photographs of all 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam. Researching and writing the stories of those who died to preserve freedom has gone from a hobby to a passion for me. If we don’t honor and remember, who will?”
This is one of the final 50 stories (9) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 radio operator Archie Snoddy. You can read about Archie here.
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.
Follow on Twitter @ww2fallen100
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”
References:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94433931/thomas-patrick-dougherty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guam_(1944)#Battle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Marine_Division#World_War_II
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