This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Michael Frederick
to remember
Marine MTSgt Elmo Haney (Pop).
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 Magazine
Last Address Benton County Memorial Park Rogers Benton County Arkansas, USA
Date of Passing Jan 13, 1979
Location of Interment Benton County Memorial Park - Rogers, Arkansas
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Actually, born as St. Elmo M Haney "Pop", was born in Magazine, Yell Arkansas, to Albert S. Haney and Mary Haney. He was the grandson of Henry Haney a confederate veteran. He had two sisters, Georgia Cowger of Kansas City, MO and Geneva Virginia White of Bella Vista.
Marine Master Sargent St. Elmo Murray Haney "Pop", served with great distinction through our worst wars, WW1 and WWII. Master Sargent Haney during WWI, then a Corporal in a heavy machine gun unit fought in places in France and at the famed battle of Belleau Wood, against a heavy German fighting force. At that time, he was serving in K (King) Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (there were no divisions at the time). He left the service in 1921, while stationed at Boston Navy Yard to teach school in Arkansas for four years. He reentered the service in 1927 in San Diego California. By WWII he reenlisted and was attached to K/3/5 (his original assignment during WWI), being considered "The Old Breed" he commanded Marines in the field of the South Pacific fighting the Japanese Empire. He fought in the campaigns of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester (where his valor earned him the Silver Star) and Peleliu. He was a man that had the respect of his Marines.
After coming home from the war, he went to school and became a graduate of Cilicothe Business College in Missouri and attended Hendrix College. He settled to Bentonville, Arkansas and in 1949 married Ethel Taletha Tirey. Ethel Haney died in 1972. He attended Bentonville Church of Christ and was where he lived for 30 years until his death.
Master Sargent St. Elmo Murray Haney was a character recently depicted in the HBO mini-series "The Pacific" referred to as "Gunny". From those who served with Haney, it has been confirmed that how you saw him portrayed on screen was exactly the man and Marine he was.
I am currently getting more information on this great Marine and will update as I get more of the information.
Below is his following citation for his Silver Star that he was awarded in WWII:
Silver Star - Awarded for actions during the World War II
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Platoon Sergeant St. Elmo M. Haney (MCSN: 131228), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with the FIRST Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Cape Gloucester, New Britain on January 10, 1944. While our forces were engaged in bitter hand-to-hand combat defending a vital ridge, Platoon Sergeant Haney courageously led an ammunition carrying party through dark jungle undergrowth and driving rain to deliver supplies to our front lines, arriving five minutes before the last desperate counter attack when one platoon was completely out of ammunition and the entire line was low. By his expeditious delivery of the urgently needed supplies, he enabled our units to defend their position successfully. L Platoon Sergeant Haney's daring initiative and selfless devotion to duty in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
General Orders: Commander 7th Fleet: Serial 0853
Action Date: January 10, 1944
Service: Marine Corps
Rank: Platoon Sergeant
Division: 1st Marine Division
Other Comments:
Described in Eugene Sledge's book, With the Old Breed: On Peleliu and Okinawa and portrayed in the HBO mini-series, "The Pacific."
World War I
From Month/Year
April / 1917
To Month/Year
November / 1918
Description The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11, 1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilising the economy and labour force, by spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world,[citation needed] although there was substantial public opposition to United States entry into the war.
Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[26] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 17, 1917, but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various Co-belligerents allied with the central powers, thus the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United States as late as 1917 maintained only a small army, smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918 about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917 Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
Impact of US forces on the war
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. After British Empire, French and Portuguese forces had defeated and turned back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.
