Ernest Alfred Elder, Jr.

PFC Ernest Elder enlisted in the Marine Corps in late 1942 and deployed overseas as a member of the Fourteenth Replacement Battalion. He volunteered for Raider duty, and was assigned to Company O, Fourth Raider Battalion, in the late spring of 1943. Elder stayed with the company’s rear echelon during the New Georgia campaign; he was stationed on Guadalcanal,  and saw no combat during his first year in uniform. On 1 February 1944, the Raider battalions were consolidated into the “new” 4th Marines. Elder’s Company O was re-designated as F/2/4th Marines, taking the name of an outfit captured at Corregidor in 1942.

Swimming was a popular pastime for off-duty Marines, but dangerous for the careless or unwary. PFC Elder was on an authorized swimming party on 9 February 1944 when he was suddenly pulled off his feet and underwater. An official investigation reported that Elder was “standing on sandbar 75 yards from shore” when he was “swept into deep hole by undertow.”

Rescue efforts were unsuccessful, and Elder’s body was not recovered.