"A Died-In-The-Wool Texan"....Bravery on Bloody-Nose Ridge

[bobgee]

Wonderful tribute and medal, Phillip. Congrats on acquiring it. R.I.P. Lt. Decker. Semper Fi.........Bobgee

[Brian Dentino]

Phillip, great medal and demonstration of valor by this brave Marine and very extensive documents to accompany the SS! Very nice to see, thanks for sharing! R.I.P. Lt!!!!

[History Man]

Thanks for sharing the valor of a fellow Texan. Where is he buried?

 

He is buried in Kyle Cemetery which is located in Hays County, where he is from.

 

Philip

[History Man]

Phillip ,very nice medal. Glad to see it in good hands for such a young collector.I love marine silver stars for WW2, I also have one from peleliu.Where abouts of the purple heart is that the daughter has it.And wants to kept it in the family for her father's memory. That battle was called HELL ON EARTH TO THE 1ST MARINES,A lot of good marines where lost their for no reason.Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Nick

 

Thank you Nick, I was unaware that the daughter is in possession of the Purple Heart. It is tough to imagine what the Marines went through while securing the island based on what I have heard from those who had fought through it and from what I have read....it really was hell on Earth.

 

Kevin, there is indeed a transmittal letter for the Purple Heart and I have included a copy of it.

 

Philip

[Gary B]

Philip,

 

A really nice SS. I am glad I had a chance to handle it in person. Nice meeting you also.

 

Gary B

[KaiserM715]

I have been researching my uncle's military history and came across this thread. I am John Decker's nephew. I am relatively new to military history research. Philip, is there a way to get high resolution scans of all of the documentation that you have here? This is the first time that I have seen it.

 

Where abouts of the purple heart is that the daughter has it.And wants to kept it in the family for her father's memory.

 

That is not correct. John was never married. His only surviving next of kin is his sister, who has done the most research on his military history until I started digging into it.

[KaiserM715]

Lt. John A. Decker was the platoon leader of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. He was known as "Deck" to his fellow marines. Fellow Marine, Bruce Watkins (Platoon leader of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines), described him this way - "a good friend, a died-in-the-wool Texan, who could tell the tallest stories you ever heard."

 

I had the pleasure of corresponding with Bruce several times before he passed away last summer. It was from him that I learned more details of John's death. Plus, I was able to learn of several more anecdotes of my uncle that were not included in his book (which is a pretty good read).

 

He is buried in Kyle Cemetery which is located in Hays County, where he is from.

 

Yes, he is buried in his family plot in Kyle, TX. Here is a link to his Find A Grave page, for those interested:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34199585

 

[Ricardo]

Very nice!!!

[KaiserM715]

Where abouts of the purple heart is that the daughter has it.And wants to kept it in the family for her father's memory.

 

After some further research, I have found that the Purple Heart is no longer with our family, unfortunately.

[KaiserM715]

I am pleased to report that my family was able to work with Philip to get the medal back into our possession. Thanks again to Philip.

[bellasilva]

Thought I'd revisit this thread. Indeed an incredible find Philip, and I'm sure glad it ended up in worthy hands.