George Coe Browning
Private George C. Browning served with Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 23rd Marines.
He was reported missing in action at Iwo Jima on 20 February 1945.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 472774
Current Status
ACCOUNTED FOR
as of 15 April 2024
Recovery Organization
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Read press release
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
August 18, 1922
at Minneapolis, MN
Parents
Robert George Browning
Caroline T. (Coe) Browning
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Details unknown
Service Life
Entered Service
October 5, 1942
at New York, NY
Home Of Record
175 East Clinton Avenue
Tenafly, NJ
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Carol C. Browning
Military Specialty
Radioman (MOS 776)
Primary Unit
HQ/1/23rd Marines
Campaigns Served
Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart (Tinian)
with Gold Star (Iwo Jima)
Additional Service Details
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Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
George Browning enlisted in the Marine Corps in October 1942; after completing boot camp at Parris Island and radio school at Camp Lejeune, he was assigned to duty with the comms platoon of First Battalion, 23rd Marines. He served as a radioman in the battles of Roi-Namur, Saipan, and Tinian, where he was slightly wounded in action on 2 August 1944. Browning earned a PFC stripe while overseas, but lost it following a disciplinary infraction in the winter of 1944. In January 1945, his regiment departed Hawaii for Iwo Jima, and landed under fire on 19 February. Browning managed to survive his first few hours on Iwo, and spent the night in a foxhole on Beach Yellow One.
On the morning of 20 February 1945, Browning was ordered to find replacement communications gear stored somewhere in the vicinity of Beach Red Two, approximately 500 yards away. All beaches were under heavy mortar and artillery fire, with casualties occurring constantly. Private Browning never returned to his company; since no eyewitnesses could state whether he was wounded or dead, Browning was reported as missing in action. He was promoted to PFC while in missing status.
Nothing more was learned of Browning’s fate, and he was ultimately declared dead on 21 February 1946.
Burial Information or Disposition
It is now known that Browning’s body was found by a casualty collection team and brought to the Fourth Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima. He could not be identified at the time – it appears his remains were badly mangled, perhaps by an artillery shell – and was buried as an unknown in Grave #70. The remains were exhumed in 1948 and shipped to Honolulu for laboratory analysis, but even trained professionals could not agree on an identity using forensic methods of the time. “Unknown X-12” was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
In 2022, the DPAA ordered the exhumation of Iwo Jima unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. George Browning was finally associated with X-12, and he was accounted for on 15 April 2024
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Carol Browning.
Location Of Loss
Browning was last known to be in the vicinity of Beach Yellow One, Iwo Jima.
