Jay Jordan

Sergeant Jay Jordan served with Headquarters Company, 1st Marine Raider Battalion.
He was killed in action at Enogai, New Georgia, on 10 July 1943.

Note: civilian and military records regularly spell his surname as "Jordon."

Branch

Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 300048

Current Status

Remains Not Recovered

Pursuit Category

This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA

Capsule History

Pre-War Life

Birth

January 16, 1916
at Franklin Township, IN

Parents

Thomas Jordan (d. 1920)
Dora (Hickman) Jordan (d. 1930)

Education

Hartford High School (1935)
Ypsilanti State Normal College
(Eastern Michigan State University)

Occupation & Employer

United Stove Company

Service Life

Entered Service

October 21, 1940
at Detroit, MI

Home Of Record

1094 Cornell Road
Ypsilanti, MI

Next Of Kin

Wife, Mrs. Vera Janice Jordan

Military Specialty

Raider

Primary Unit

HQ/1st Raider Battalion

Campaigns Served

New Georgia

Individual Decorations

Purple Heart

Additional Service Details

—

Loss And Burial

Circumstances Of Loss

Sergeant Jay Jordan served with Headquarters Company, 1st marine Raider Battalion, during the campaigns for the Solomon Islands. While his responsibilities kept him in the rear echelon during the fighting for Guadalcanal, he would see significant combat on the island of New Georgia.

Jordan landed at Rice Anchorage on 5 July 1943 and participated in a grueling march through thick swamps and across swift rivers. When the Raiders reached the Dragons Peninsula and closed in on their objectives – Enogai and Bairoko – Japanese resistance grew more serious, and several minor but vicious skirmishes in the jungle cost lives on both sides. Making matters worse, the Raiders were poorly supplied: ammunition was limited, and rations ran out a few days into the operation. The only way out was to capture their targets.

The assault on Enogai itself lasted from 9-10 July, and ended in a Raider triumph – but victory, as always, came at a cost. Sergeant Jordan was one of 47 Raiders to lose his life in the Enogai operation; he was shot in the head by a sniper and died on 10 July 1943.

Burial Information or Disposition

With Enogai secured as an American outpost and Japanese forces regrouping elsewhere, the Marines recrossed the battlefield searching for their fallen. When possible, dead men were grouped together for burial, although many others wound up in single graves. A certain bridge was used as a reference point when recording these burials; Jordan’s grave was noted as 300 yards, 270 degrees from Bridge on Enogai Outpost.

Six months later, most isolated burials at Enogai were exhumed and the remains transported to the larger New Georgia Cemetery; Jordan was reportedly reburied in Grave 7, Row 3, Plot 27. In November 1945, the remains were moved once again to the massive cemetery complex at Finschaffen, New Guinea. Records indicate that Jordan occupied Grave 357 in Finschaffen Cemetery #5.

During laboratory analysis in 1948, a “major discrepancy” was noted with the remains from Grave 357. A tag found in the grave bore the correct name, but was stamped “Grave 577.” The physical analysis of the remains bore no resemblance to Jay Jordan – nearly a foot shorter and 80 pounds lighter – and the tooth chart did not compare. And finally, Grave 577 was found to contain the readily identifiable remains of Army Private Thomas M. Trussell.

Faced with this evidence, the Army Graves Registration Service reassigned the remains from Grave 357 as “Manila X-5105” and declared Jay Jordan non-recoverable. His final disposition is not known.