This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO2 Philip E. Montroy
to remember
Marine BGen Henry Williams Hise.
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Contact Info
Home Town Shamrock
Last Address Lubbock, TX
Date of Passing Oct 15, 2010
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
BGen Henry Hise retired from the USMC in Nov, 1971 with thirty-years of service. He returned to his home state of Texas where de died at the age of 90 on 15Oct 2010.
Other Comments:
In 1971 BGen Hise began a long retirement which was just as active as his service years. He began by teaching international relations and foreign policy at the University of Texas. In 1977, he moved to Austin to become the Executive Director of the Community Mental Health Centers of Texas until 1985.
In 1995 he returned to Guadalcanal with one of his sons and two grandsons.
BGen Hise was known as a talented sculptor, avid gardner and woodworker, and student of philosophy. He had a passion for learning, everything from astronomy to zoology. He was also known as a very kind and able man.
Ryukyus Campaign (1945)/Battle for Okinawa
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
