William John Steen
Sergeant William J. Steen served with Love Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 8 August 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 252272
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
July 22, 1918
at New York, NY
Parents
James Steen (d. 1920)
Alma Victoria (Bateman) Steen
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Details unknown
Service Life
Entered Service
March 30, 1936
at New York, NY
Home Of Record
124 Sherman Avenue
New York, NY
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Alma Steen
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
L/3/5th Marines
Campaigns Served
Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Sergeant William Steen joined L/3/5th Marines in December 1941. “He was a friendly guy by nature,” recalled fellow veteran Ore J. Marion, “but that took nothing away from the fact that he was also very competent. He always had a smile on his face. We were lucky to have a guy like Bill Steen in our unit.”
Just before the 5th Marines landed in the Solomon Islands, Steen admitted to “a strange feeling… I don’t think I’m going to make it through the Guadalcanal operation.” His fears seemed unfounded at first; the battalion’s landing on 7 August 1942 was essentially unopposed, and the Marines began advancing through the thick jungle towards their first objective.
That night, Sergeant Steen was ordered to establish a security outpost about twenty yards ahead of Love Company’s main line. The inexperienced Marines were nervous and a little trigger happy – and as Ore Marion recounts, Steen’s routine mission turned tragic.
[Steen] led his men out and they vanished almost immediately into the dense, tall kunai grass that grew everywhere around us. After establishing the forward outpost, Steen headed back toward the perimeter alone. By now darkness was total, and what little visibility the night sky might have given us was nullified by the kunai grass.
Several men in Steen’s platoon heard the sound of somebody thrashing through the grass, coming in their direction. Nobody had a clue as to where the Japanese were, or whether they’d located our position. A voice came to the platoon through the darkness, low but clear.
“OK, men. It’s me.”
A shot rang out as Sergeant Steen spoke. One of his men, frightened and trigger-happy, had squeezed off a round from his rifle. It hit Steen in the chest. Within seconds, the men got him back behind the line, but it was no good. He was bleeding profusely, and within three minutes, he was dead. Later that night, the man who had shot Steen cracked up. Corpsmen took the man away, and nobody in our unit ever heard from him or about him again….
After the accident that took Steen’s life, during our bivouac in the high grass on our first night on the Canal, nobody ever talked about it. The way he was killed was the kind of thing you never want to happen, and when it did happen, we just did not want to talk about it.
Burial Information or Disposition
Sergeant Steen was one of the first (if not the first Marines to die on Guadalcanal itself. There was no cemetery on the island, and so his comrades buried him in the field . The location was recorded as “Grave M598422” – but the significance of these coordinates is no longer known, and his remains may still lie in their temporary grave on Guadalcanal.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Alma Steen.
Steen married Mary Cecilia Coughlin on 9 May 1942, shortly before going overseas.
Location Of Loss
Sergeant Steen was killed somewhere in the vicinity of the Tenaru River, Guadalcanal.
