LeRoy Irvin Fanslow
PFC LeRoy I. Fanslow served with Dog Company, 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 11 November 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 336432
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
October 20, 1919
at Chicago, IL
Parents
August Charles Fanslow
Anna (Schoenholtz) Fanslow
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Chicago Screw Company
Service Life
Entered Service
December 18, 1941
at Chicago, IL
Home Of Record
3563 West Cortland Street
Chicago, IL
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Anna Fanslow
Military Specialty
Raider
Primary Unit
D/2nd Raider Battalion
(Carlson’s Raiders)
Campaigns Served
Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
PFC LeRoy Fanslow served in the Second (Carlson’s) Raider Battalion. His introduction to combat was the “Long Patrol” – an ambitious operation to harass and disrupt Japanese units during the Guadalcanal campaign. The Marines landed at Aola on 4 November 1942 and began working their way towards the main perimeter at Lunga Point, fighting small skirmishes and ambushes as they went. Company D, to which Fanslow belonged, was reduced in size to about forty men due to transfers prior to landing; they often operated as an extension of the battalion headquarters company.
On 11 November 1942, as patrols advanced on the village of Asamana, a battalion-sized Japanese force opened fire and halted Charlie Company in an open field. Dog Company received orders to assist, and began moving down the east bank of the Metapona River towards the sound of the guns. Unfortunately, the Japanese were waiting and ambushed Dog Company. Raider Lowell Bulger relates:
Capt. Charles P. McAuliffe led his 40 man patrol across another open grassy field and ran head-on into large units of the enemy well hidden in the heavy jungle. The Raiders found themselves caught in the open field with the enemy well concealed in the jungle to their front and both right and left flanks. Two leaders in the point were immediately killed and a third wounded. The slain Raiders were PFC LeRoy I. Fanslow and a big Indian BAR man named PFC Frank S. Mercado.
Captain McAuliffe’s headquarters group was cut off from the rest of the men; they managed to escape and reported the annihilation of the company to Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson. Fortunately, this proved not to be the case, and the surviving Dog Company Marines reached safety after a firefight lasting several hours.
Burial Information or Disposition
When the Raiders returned to the ambush site the following day, they located and buried PFC Fanslow’s body near the spot where he died. The precise location was not recorded, and was never found by post-war searches.
(For reasons unknown, the Raiders were unable to find the body of Fanslow’s comrade PFC Frank S. Mercado. He would lie unburied until 10 December 1942, when an Army patrol stumbled upon what was left of the Angeleno BARman. Mercado was also buried in the field, and has not been accounted for.)
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of parents, August & Anna Fanslow.
Location Of Loss
PFC Fanslow was killed in action near the village of Asamana.
