Joseph Perry Karnaghon
Private Joseph P. Karnaghon served with Baker Company, First Battalion, 7th Marines.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 24 September 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 366608
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
April 24, 1921
at Chanute, KS
Parents
Ernest Leroy Karnaghon
divorced from
Blanche (Perry) Karnaghon
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
General laborer
Service Life
Entered Service
April 29, 1942
at St. Louis, MO
Home Of Record
458 South Market Street
Springfield, MO
Next Of Kin
Father, Mr. Ernest Karnaghon
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
B/1/7th Marines
Campaigns Served
Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
On 24 September 1942 – six days after arriving on Guadalcanal – the First Battalion, 7th Marines departed from the Lunga Perimeter and headed out into Guadalcanal’s backcountry. They followed a trail known as the “Maizuru Road” which had served as a Japanese advance and retreat route during the battle for Edson’s Ridge. The battalion commander, Lt. Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, hoped to cross the Matanikau River at an undefended point, then advance along the Japanese-held bank to outflank enemy fortifications. This maneuver was a crucial part of a planned offensive scheduled to begin on 26 September.
After an exhausting day-long hike, the battalion reached a stream bed and began searching for a suitable bivouac. While the rearguard (Company C and Company D) occupied a defendable hill, Companies A and B advanced to the riverbank and sent scouts into the woods beyond. They ran into a Japanese detachments and were caught in a murderous crossfire from multiple machine gun positions.
[My] platoon of B Company had taken up defense in the stream, where the banks were about four feet high. I gave orders [to] to move out of the stream and up the bank. Just as we cleared the stream, two machine guns opened up on us. Some of us rolled back into the water, others lay flat, and got behind anything they could find. I rolled over behind a tree. The firing had us pinned down. Bullets were spraying everywhere.
On Puller’s command, Baker Company tried to rush forward in a pincer maneuver to outflank the guns – but the Japanese fire was too heavy and several Marines were shot down, including platoon leader 2Lt. Walter Olliff and acting company commander 1Lt. Alvin C. Cockrell, Jr. With darkness quickly approaching, Puller decided to withdraw his men to the rearguard position at “Hill X,” several hundred yards to the rear. The Marines gathered their wounded, but had to leave the dead on the field for the time being.
One of the men who fell was Private Joseph Karnaghon, a 21-year-old from Missouri. Karnaghon had volunteered to join the 7th Marines a few weeks before – he had hoped to get out of garrison duty on Samoa and see some action with the famous “Chesty” Puller. The specifics of his death are not currently known.
Burial Information or Disposition
Early on 25 September, Puller’s men set out to locate and bury their friends. The ten fatal casualties were buried in two groups of five – one on “Hill X,” the reserve position, and one on “Hill Y,” closer to the scene of the firefight. The bodies of Wehr, Karnaghon, Pimentel, Edwinson, and Cockrell were carried to a ridgeline to increase the likelihood that future patrols would spot the graves. Identifying information was placed into the dead men’s canteens, and a dog tag was buried with each body. Finally, small markers were placed and the Marines said their goodbyes.
The battalion departed soon after the final grave was dug: two companies returned to the perimeter with the wounded, while Puller pressed on with Company C and reinforcements from 2/5th Marines. The remote location was rarely, if ever, seen by American troops for the rest of the battle.
Two post-war expeditions (1947 and 1949) failed to locate the graves of Puller’s men, and all were declared non-recoverable.
The Hill X and Hill Y sites were prioritized by the DPAA starting in 2012. Subsequent archaeological digs have returned possible remains, identification tags, and additional material evidence from the area; positive identifications were announced starting in May 2024.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of father, Mr. Ernest Karnaghon.
Location Of Loss
Approximate location of Hill Y – now the outskirts of Honiara, Guadalcanal.
Gallery
Related Profiles
Buried in the field, Hills X and Y, as result of Maizuru Ambush.
Leaving Mac Behind: The Lost Marines of Guadalcanal
Willie Rowe, or someone who sounded a lot like Willie, was crying in the darkness.
PFC Gerald White could not blame Willie. He felt a bit like crying himself. His battalion of the 7t Marines left the Lunga perimeter full of fight, ready to prove they were no Johnny-come-lately laggards but the warriors who would turn the tide on Guadalcanal. Now they were a “weary and dejected band” dug in on a nameless hill overlooking an unfamiliar stream, an anonymous location with no known landmarks save those they named themselves. The field where Fuller found the cooking fire; the ridge their guns were on; the tree where Goble hid; the trail where Randolph died.
Unremarkable places, except that men bled for them.
Read more about the Maizuru Ambush in "Leaving Mac Behind."
Click the cover for details.
This was my Uncle . My father’s brother.I never met him as I wasn’t born yet but has been on my mind for some years, left out there on some hill in an unmarked grave ! Hope to have his remains returned home some day!
I feel the same way you do. I am the nephew of John edward edwinson jr and did not know him, my fathers older brother. It looks to me they may have been in the same fire fight that day. I too wish they could have his remains returned home.My father named me after his older brother in which i am proud of, my aunt told me when i was young you were named after your uncle not your grandfather who was sr. I hope you get this reply and we get our wish. John Edward Edwinson III. N.H.