Henry Richard Gregerson
Gunnery Sergeant Henry R. Gregerson served with Dog Company, First Battalion, 2nd Marines.
He was killed in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 22 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 280972
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
April 23, 1920
at Deer River, MN
Parents
Victor Edwin Gregerson
Elsie (Brekke) Gregerson (d. 1935)
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Details unknown
Service Life
Entered Service
January 17, 1940
at Minneapolis, MN
Home Of Record
184 North Saratoga Avenue
St. Paul, MN
Next Of Kin
Father, Mr. Victor E. Gregerson
Military Specialty
Gunnery Sergeant
Primary Unit
D/1/2nd Marines
Campaigns Served
Solomon Islands
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
Brothers Henry and Carl Gregerson enlisted together; both served in 1/2nd Marines.
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Gunnery Sergeant Gregerson served with Company D, First Battalion, 2nd Marines during the battle of Tarawa. As a senior NCO of a heavy weapons company, “Gunny” Gregerson oversaw the deployment of water-cooled machine guns to provide fire support for fellow Marines in the assault companies.
Gregerson landed somewhere along Beach Red One on 20 November 1943, and immediately went about his duties. He caught the attention of his platoon leader, 2Lt. Walter B. Yoder. “Yoder explained the dangers of keeping field glasses and map cases,” writes historian Eric Hammel in Bloody Tarawa. “However, GySgt Henry Gregerson was an old-time Marine, and he had too much respect for the value of Marine Corps property to be talked into throwing any of it away.”
Gregerson’s distinctive equipment may have also drawn the notice of a Japanese sniper. On 22 November 1943 – the final day of the battle – the Gunny was killed by a rifle shot through the chest.
Burial Information or Disposition
When the fighting stopped, Lieutenant Yoder walked back over his platoon’s battleground and found Gregerson lying where he fell. “Yoder took a few minutes out to view Gregerson’s body,” relates Eric Hammel. “The gunny was still carrying his map case and field glasses, and Yoder was again glad that he had ditched his. Since Gregerson’s brother [Carl Gregerson] was in the battalion communications platoon, the lieutenant took the gunny’s watch for him.”
Gregerson’s body was laid down alongside several others in a long trench on Betio’s “bird beak” near the western shore. This location, designated “Beach Green Cemetery B” or “2nd Marines Cemetery #2” became the resting place for 21 Marines – nineteen of whom were identified at time of burial. In the months that followed, the original markers were torn down and replaced by a giant memorial cross and a painted plaque. Naval troops garrisoning the island referred to this memorial as “Cemetery 10.”
In 1946, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company exhumed the remains from Cemetery 10 (which they somewhat confusingly called “Cemetery 18”). Six could be identified on the spot; eight more were identified by laboratory analysis in Hawaii during the late 1940s. Gregerson, unfortunately, was not among them.
More recent investigative work has whittled down the number of unknowns from this cemetery. The remains of PFC Darwin H. Brown (known buried here, but evidently overlooked by the 604th) were recovered in the 1990s and identified in 2000. Twenty years later, Sergeant Fred Farris was accounted for. This leaves only two unidentified remains from Cemetery 10 – designated as X-239 and X-244.
It is possible, though not certain, that X-239 may be a match for Gunnery Sergeant Gregerson – their physical characteristics, as well as their estimated ages, align closely. However, the condition of the remains prevents any conclusions based on records alone.
Betio X-239 may also be associated with Corporal Richard H. Marshall or Corporal Thomas D. Cain.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of father, Mr. Victor E. Gregerson.
Location Of Loss
Gunny Gregerson was killed in action at an unspecified location on Betio.
