Jack Lowell Russell

Jack Russell was born in Sacramento, California, in May 1924. His parents divorced before he was two years old, and Jack grew up with his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Edith Lawyer, in southern Oregon and northern California. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps in August 1941, his closest relative was his aunt, Mrs. Pearl Wood, of Sacramento. Russell completed boot camp at San Diego, and was assigned to the Second Special Weapons Battalion. He deployed overseas in October 1942, transferred to Dog Company, First Battalion, 6th Marines in New Zealand, and fought in the Guadalcanal campaign and the battle for Tarawa as a heavy machine gunner before joining B/1/6th Marines in January 1944.

On 15 June 1944, PFC Russell boarded a landing craft bound for Red Beach 2 on Saipan. Although his battalion was in reserve, they took heavy fire on their approach. “All of the LVTs were tightly packed with Marines,” notes A Brief History of the 6th Marines. “The men had only enough room to stand hunched over beneath the armored gunwales of the LVTs, a position necessary because of the steady drum of small arms fire on the sides. Once in a while a mortar or artillery shell would score a direct hit on an LVT. Survivors waded ashore without their equipment.”

Russell was reported as missing in action on 15 June, and officially determined killed in action on 22 May 1945. Nothing more is known about his disappearance or final disposition.