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NAME Carl Joseph Held |
NICKNAME Pop |
SERVICE NUMBER 299459 |
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| UNIT Battery I Third Battalion 10th Marines |
HOME OF RECORD 3319 North Albany Avenue, Chicago, IL |
NEXT OF KIN Mother, Mrs. Anna Held |
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| DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1916 |
ENTERED SERVICE October 16, 1940 |
DATE OF LOSS October 26, 1942 |
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| REGION Solomon Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Guadacanal |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing In Action Declared Dead October 27, 1943 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Sergeant Carl J. “Pop” Held was a Marine artilleryman who served with Battery I, 10th Marines during the battle of Guadalcanal. On the night of 26 October 1942, “Pop” was assigned as the senior man of Forward Operating Post #9 on the Lunga perimeter. The position was attacked and overwhelmed by Japanese troops intent on capturing Henderson Field, and in the fracas Held was shot in the thigh. His buddies carried him down the hill to a corpsman, who treated the wound and administered morphine. The sergeant was left behind as the battle moved on; in the morning, he could not be found. Sergeant Held was never seen alive again. He was declared dead on 27 October 1943. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Sergeant |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered |
MEMORIALS Rosehill Cemetery, Beechwood, MI Manila American Cemetery |
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Biography:
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“That night the battery lost one of its best men, Scout Sergeant Carl J. (Pop) Held, during the fight for Hand Grenade Hill. The Japs counterattacked, and Held was shot in the right thigh. Corp. [Theodore] Dorn and PFC Charlie R. Perry carried him back about 75 yards to a corpsman. After he was given first aid and a shot of morphine, the others had to leave him there alone as the battle moved forward.
They took the hill in the morning, but when they came back for Held he had disappeared. He was never found, and there is an unconfirmed story that his wallet was found on a dead Jap.”
– Bill Miller “The Forgotten Battalion,” Leatherneck Magazine Vol. 28, No. 2 (February 1945)
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