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George Harold Bates

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PFC George H. “Bud” Bates served with Baker Company, First Battalion, 2nd Marines.
He drowned while crossing Sealark Channel, off Guadalcanal, on 9 October 1942..

Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Branch

Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 322630

Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Current Status

Remains Not Recovered

Pursuit Category

Based on circumstances of loss, this individual is considered permanently non-recoverable.

Capsule History

Pre-War Life

Birth

February 29, 1920
at Independence, KS

Parents

Oatis Adolphis Bates (d. 1944)
Jennie Sophronia (Dickerson) Bates

Education

Grammar school

Occupation & Employer

Spray rig operator
S. E. Courtney Ranch, Modesto

Service Life

Entered Service

September 24, 1941
at San Francisco, CA

Home Of Record

Riverbank, CA

Next Of Kin

Mother, Mrs. Jennie Bates

Military Specialty

Primary Unit

B/1/2nd Marines

Campaigns Served

Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal

Individual Decorations

Purple Heart

Additional Service Details

Loss And Burial

Circumstances Of Loss

The First Battalion, 2nd Marines participated in the August landings in the Solomon Islands in August 1942 – but soon found themselves on “abysmally boring, terribly uncomfortable, and unhealthy” garrison duty on Tulagi. Among them was PFC George “Bud” Bates, a pre-war Marine from rural California.

On the evening of 9 October 1942, the battalion made ready for a raid against a Japanese encampment at Aola Bay on Guadalcanal’s north coast. Four hundred and thirty men assembled on the beach and boarded a small fleet of eight “T Boats” – the Higgins “Eureka” model, also known as the Landing Craft Personnel, Large (LCPL) – that would ferry them across Sealark Channel to Aola. The objective was more than thirty miles away, so a pair of Yard Patrol craft (“Challenger” and “Endeavor”) were assigned as tow vessels. “Four Higgins boats were towed behind each YP, but instead of securing each boat to the YP by a separate towline, the boats were tied one to the other in a column,” explained William Rogal of A/1/2. “Thus the lead boat, the only one tied directly to the YP, had to bear the strain of the three loaded boats tied to its stern.”

The raiding party departed at dusk, setting a very modest five knot pace across open water. The “Yippies,” fishing boats pressed into wartime service, unarmed and unarmored, relying on the cover of night to cross undetected. Unfortunately, as Rogal relates, “the sky to our rear lit up with flashes of light and the booming of heavy guns reached our ears…. My discomfort was not helped by the highly visible sparks that spewed from my YP’s stack.” The Yippie skippers gunned their engines to escape the unknown threat.

Lieutenant Floyd E. Parks‘ Second Platoon occupied the first Higgins boat towed by YP-284 “Endeavor.” The sudden acceleration proved too much for the plywood frame, and with a sickening splintering sound, the boat split in two and capsized. Horrified Marines weighted down by combat gear found themselves sinking to the bottom of the channel. Fourteen clung to the wreckage or surfaced in a panic; Pharmacist’s Mate Eugene Baxter personally rescued ten survivors. Another fifteen Marines – including PFC Bates – drowned, and were never seen again.

Burial Information or Disposition

None; remains lost at sea.

YP-284 was sunk in action off Guadalcanal on 25 October 1942.

Next Of Kin Address

Address of mother, Mrs. Jennie Bates.

Location Of Loss

The Higgins boat sank in Sealark Channel between Tulagi and Aola.

Related Profiles

Lost in Sealark Channel, 9 October 1942.
Haltom, Hipp, and Lee, on detached duty from USS President Jackson, comprised the Higgins boat crew.
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