Amos Hedrick Gray

PFC Amos H. Gray served with Able Company, First Battalion, 2nd Marines.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal on 10 November 1942.

Branch

Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 337901

Current Status

Remains Not Recovered

Pursuit Category

The DPAA has not publicized this information.

Capsule History

Pre-War Life

Birth

March 2, 1920
at Abilene, TX

Parents

Elijah “Lige” Gray
Vessie (Williamson) Gray

Education

San Angelo High School (1939)
Angelo State University
Hinds Junior College
Hardin Simmons University

Occupation & Employer

College student

Service Life

Entered Service

December 18, 1941
at Jackson, MS

Home Of Record

Raymond, MS

Next Of Kin

Mother, Mrs. Vessie Gray

Military Specialty

—

Primary Unit

A/1/2nd Marines

Campaigns Served

Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal

Individual Decorations

Purple Heart

Additional Service Details

—

Loss And Burial

Circumstances Of Loss

After spending several days in reserve positions supporting units of the 164th Infantry Regiment, two battalions of the 2nd Marines were ordered to recommence offensive operations against Japanese troops west of Guadalcanal’s Point Cruz. The terrain was rough and hilly – familiar to combat veterans, but physically taxing. “The day was the hottest I can remember on the ‘Canal,” wrote William Rogal of A/1/2.

The First Battalion’s task was to protect the left flank of the advance; to do this, they needed to control the high ground of a hill about 1000 yards inland from the coast. Their attack kicked off at 0630 and proceeded quietly – albeit slowly – until about 1100.

In due time the word came to move out and we advanced into a heavily wooded valley. The descent into the gorge was uneventful, as was most of the climb up the opposite slope. However, when we reached the crest of the hill and started to move into the tall grass, all hell broke loose.... The Japs then went to work with mortars, dropping round after round on us. I don' t think they wasted a single round either long or short....

Meanwhile, A Company was taking a beating. Richard Gill, William Schreiner, James Majercak, and Amos Gray lay dead. At least ten others were wounded, some very badly.... The Battalion Muster Roll reveals two Corpsmen were killed that day, Alfred Schuler and James Gage, but I have no recollection as to which, if either, was with us. My squad was decimated, with three BAR men down.... We had our asses whipped and withdrew back to the line we kicked off from.

William W. Rogal (A/1/2), Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Beyond: A Mud Marine’s Memoir of the Pacific Island War.

“They sure had our number,” admitted Jim Sorensen, another Company A squad leader. Sorensen recalled that two squads were caught in two-foot-high grass near the crest of the hill, about forty yards from the treeline. “At last they threw the works at us – machine guns and mortar; must have been a half-dozen grenades from those ‘knee’ mortars that struck squarely in the cluster of men. One shell hit practically on Gray at the jungle’s edge and killed him instantly. Young Hale to my right was hit in the spine with fragments. Mosier below me was hit in the chest and kidneys, young Jais was deaf from the shock blast and McDonald caught a load of the stuff in his shoulder and left arm. One damn shell blew up three feet to my left, punctured my pack and me too – my hearing went off, my head felt as though it was floating on air and I had the impression that I’d been flung from a truck.”

Burial Information or Disposition

None; remains not recovered. In his memoir, Rogal notes “Even retreating wasn’t easy for we didn’t have enough stretchers for the wounded nor enough able-bodied men to get them and our weapons back to the safety of our lines. There was no help for it – we had to leave our dead.”

Gray was “presumably buried in the field at place of death” but there is no documented evidence to back up this assumption.

Amos Gray’s family received “a letter of congratulations” stating he had been commissioned; some obituaries refer to him as “Lieutenant Gray.” However, the source of this letter is not known, and Gray’s final rank remains Private First Class.