This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Scott MacQuarrie (Mac)
to remember
Marine Capt Robert William Troup, Jr..
If you knew or served with this Marine and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Harrisburg
Last Address Encino, CA
Date of Passing Feb 07, 1999
Location of Interment Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Hollywood Hills, California
Wall/Plot Coordinates Courts of Remembrance, Columbarium of Providence
Attention! The dates you selected for being assigned to this Unit are outside the 1943 to 1946 we believe this Unit was in existence. Can you please re-check your dates and click HERE if you wish to amend these? If you believe your Unit was in existence during your selected dates, please let us know at admin@togetherweserved.com.
Organized at Montford Point Camp, New River, North Carolina, this was the first of two defense battalions commanded by white officers, but organized from among African American Marines who had trained at Montford Point. Colonel Samuel Woods, Jr., who commanded the Montford Point Camp, formed the battalion and became its first commanding officer. Lieutenant Colonel William B. Onley took over in March 1943 and Lieutenant Colonel Floyd A. Stephenson in April. The initial plan called for the 51st to be a composite unit with infantry and pack-howitzer elements, but in June 1943 it became a conventional defense battalion. Lieutenant Curtis W. LeGette assumed command in January 1944 and took the battalion to Nanoumea and Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, where it arrived by the end of February 1944. In September, the 51st deployed to Eniwetok in the Marshalls where, in December, Lieutenant Colonel Gould P. Groves became battalion commander, a post he would hold throughout the rest of the war. In June 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Groves dispatched a composite group to provide antiaircraft defense for Kwajalein Atoll. The battalion sailed from the Marshalls in November 1945 and disbanded at Montford Point in January 1946.