Elbert Raymond Priest

Elbert Priest – often known by his middle name, Raymond – was born in Arvada, Colorado on 16 October 1921, the first child of Fred and Alice Priest. He was not quite two years old when his younger brother George arrived; the two would grow to be extremely close. A third brother, Irving, arrived in 1931.

The Priest boys spent much of their childhood in Denver, then moved to Oakland, California in the late 1930s. Ray and George both attended Fremont High School (classes of 1939 and 1941) and lived quite ordinary lives. After graduation, Ray found a decent job as a shipping clerk for an engraving company in Oakland.

Ray had one particular girlfriend he called “Tiny.” Irving recalled that Ray and Tiny were out on a date when the news of Pearl Harbor reached Oakland.

George and Ray decided to enlist immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 5 January 1942, the brothers reported to a San Francisco recruiting station to join the Marine Corps. They received sequential service numbers – 345512 and 345513 – and were soon on their way to San Diego for boot camp.

From the very first, the brothers were seemingly joined at the hip. Both were selected for aviation training, and both attended radio school in Jacksonville, Florida. According to their younger brother Irving, the Priests both hoped to become pilots and were undergoing training at Camp Kearney, but had their plans cut short by deployment to the Pacific.

Even overseas, George and Ray stuck close together. Both were assigned to VMSB-141, a scout-bomber squadron of the First Marine Air Wing, as radioman/gunners in Dauntless dive bombers. They shipped out from San Diego on 1 September 1942 and arrived at Noumea after a long sea voyage. There, they were temporarily separated – Elbert deployed to Guadalcanal on 29 September; George followed on 8 October.

So closely were the brothers linked that they even received promotions to corporal on the same day – 5 October 1942. The squadron’s clerks had difficulty telling the Corporals Priest apart, and occasionally confused the two in muster rolls and official records.

On 10 October 1942, George’s SBD took off for an early morning strike. His plane never returned. Ray took the blow hard, and according to family accounts volunteered for every search mission flown in the days that followed. George’s pilot was rescued and told of engine failure and a crash landing – but had no idea if George was alive.

Ray was likely still in shock over George’s disappearance when he took off for yet another mission on 15 October 1942. Like George, he never returned.

Family lore holds that Ray’s SBD disappeared on yet another search for George’s missing plane, and this is a distinct possibility. However, there was so much activity at Henderson Field that day – “constant attacking and combat with enemy planes” in the words of the squadron’s war diary – that it is not clear which mission cost the lives of Ray and his pilot, 2Lt. Robert C. LeBlanc. They failed to return to the field and were never seen again.

In December, an Oakland radio station broadcast the news that a Priest boy was missing in action. A friend of the family telephoned Fred and Alice Priest in Redwood City. The Priests drove sixty miles back to Oakland and, not knowing which telegram office was holding their message, split up to search. When they reconvened, they found they had lost both of their sons.

George Priest was declared dead on 11 October 1943. Ray followed on 19 February 1945.

CENOTAPHS
Golden Gate National Cemetery
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial