USMC Okinawa KIA Purple Heart

[trenchbuff]

Just got this group fresh from an estate. Corporal Roscoe Garner Hooker served with the 1st Marine Division and was killed on May 2, 1945 during the battle for Okinawa. He was born and raised in Missouri where he met and married his wife, Bonnie, who was 15 years older than he was. They moved to Montana where they planned to make their home. His widow stayed in Montana until the end of her life. I was able to find his obituary which has a very good history of his service in the Marine Corps. Unfortunately it's too large to post on the forum. He enlisted in the Corps on December 13, 1942. He served at Cape Gloucester where he contracted Malaria and missed Saipan. He saw action at Pelelieu, after which he moved to the Russell Islands. Hooker landed on Okinawa on Easter Sunday 1945. His obituary noted that he was a knife collector and noted in a letter home that his favorite knife had been stolen. It was one made by a maker from Darby, Montana and was far superior to the one he'd been issued. Corp. Hooker is buried at Punchbowl National Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii.

[trenchbuff]

Close-up of medal.

[Kurt Barickman]

Mark,

 

Very nice PH and story. Missed you in St. Paul last month.

 

Kurt

[tarbridge]

Nice Mark.Congrats,Robert

[uplandmod]

:salute:

[doyler]

Nice addition Mark

 

:thumbsup:

[scottplen]

Very Nice !

[Ricardo]

Very nice!!!!

[TCSchultz]

Nice grouping and you may already know that there are multiple photographs of him in uniform in Ancestry.com but the one that I thought would be nice for everyone to see is this of his grave. A photo of his headstone at Punchbowl is there as well but is too large to post here.

 

[trenchbuff]

Nice grouping and you may already know that there are multiple photographs of him in uniform in Ancestry.com but the one that I thought would be nice for everyone to see is this of his grave. A photo of his headstone at Punchbowl is there as well but is too large to post here.

 

 

Thanks for adding the photo. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that is probably his original grave on Okinawa. There really was an amazing amount of photos posted for him on ancestry. Thanks again!

[Jack's Son]

This is very nice Mark. The engraving is nicer then this guy usually does too.

[TLeo]

Here's his final resting place.