Earl Owen Thresher
PFC Earl O. “Eardie” Thresher served with George Company, Second Battalion, 5th Marines.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 26 September 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 322364
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
December 27, 1921
at Louisville, KY
Parents
Albert Algernon Thresher (d. 1922)
Betty Jane (Bryant) Thresher
Education
Theodore Ahrens Trade High School (1939)
Occupation & Employer
Printer
Service Life
Entered Service
October 1, 1941
at Louisville, KY
Home Of Record
2407 Montgomery Street
Louisville, KY
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Betty J. Thresher
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
G/2/5th Marines
Campaigns Served
Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
PFC Earl Thresher participated in the campaigns for the Solomon Islands as a member of G/2/5th Marines. By mid-September 1942, he was a veteran of landings on Tulagi, combat patrols on Guadalcanal, and the battle for Edson’s Ridge.
On September 25, Thresher’s battalion was ordered to saddle up and head into the boondocks to support a friendly combat patrol. They were placed under the temporary command of LtCol. Lewis “Chesty” Puller, and patrolled west towards the Matanikau River. They followed the eastern bank towards the river’s mouth and attempted to cross over a sandspit on the morning of 26 September. Japanese defenders knocked back scouts from Easy Company, and the Marines formed up along the bank to force their way across.
Captain Tom Richmond’s George Company was ordered to lead the assault across the spit, with Corporal Charles H. “Buddy” Waldron‘s squad on the point. “He had seven guys,” recalled First Sergeant Francis Lieberman. “He got the whole squad across. Then the roof caved in. They shot machine guns, mortars – goddamn, they used everything. The rest of us were pinned down on that open beach.”
Ed Newell remembered the sudden bloodbath that obliterated several of his friends in a matter of minutes.
We made three attacks trying to get across the sandspit at the mouth of the Matanikau River. Second Platoon lost Waldron, Hopkins, Kennedy, Thresher, and Vignovich, all on the same day at the same place – and quite a few wounded. The platoon was pretty chewed up that day.
We never got across the sandspit either, and it was only a few hundred yards long....
Burial Information or Disposition
According to unit records, the Marines who fell in the failed attack across the Matanikau were buried on the west end of the sandspit “about 1,000 yards west of a road along beach at Guadalcanal.” However, the western bank of the Matanikau remained under Japanese control – and would be the scene of more fierce fighting in the months to come. As veteran Ed Newell recalled:
To be honest, his body, and those of the other killed may have washed to sea during the night after the attack. If his body was recovered and buried on the sand spit, it would have been buried within just a few yards above high tide, and of course over the years anything could have happened to it.
Memorials
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
Zachary Taylor National Cemetery
“Memorial Day,” a reminiscence about Earl Thresher, as written by his nephew R. L. Cherry.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Betty Thresher.
Location Of Loss
Mouth of the Matanikau River, Guadalcanal. The sandspit present during the war has long since vanished.
