This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO3 Manuel (Manny) Vizinho
to remember
Marine 1stLt Joyce Madison Sanders.
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Contact Info
Home Town Kingfisher
Last Address 410 S. 10th St. Kingfisher
MIA Date Feb 12, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Japan
Location of Memorial Kingfisher Cemetery - Kingfisher, Oklahoma
By June 1943, VMSB-241 was fighting large scale operations against Japanese installations in the northern Solomon Islands. The group moved to Efate in November 1943 and remained there until June 1944.
1stLt Joyce M. Sanders, pilot, and Cpl James P. Griffin, gunner/radioman, missing in action, last seen plunging smoking into water 50 yds east of Credner Islands, St. George Channel. Lt. Sanders was shot down at a perilously low altitude strafing either a gunboat or destroyer which was firing at our retiring planes.
SANDERS, Joyce M, 1STLT, O-021757, USMC, from Oklahoma, location Solomon Islands, date of loss February 12, 1944 + SANDERS, Joyce M, First Lieutenant, O-021757, USMC, from Oklahoma, Manila American Cemetery + SANDERS, Joyce Madison, 21757, VMSB-241, MAG-21, 2nd MAW, FMF, New Britain, February 13, 1945, killed in action + SANDERS, Joyce M., 1st Lieutenant, USMCR. Parents, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh T. Sandrs, 410 S. 10th St., Kingfisher, Okla
Body Not Recovered
Other Comments:
Tuesday, February 12, 1991, a Memorial Service for Marine 1Lt. Joyce M. Sanders, took place at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He'd been a bomber pilot, who went down in a flying mission against the Japanese in the Rabaul Area, New Britain Island, Southwest Pacific Feb. 12, 1944. The service was 47 years from the date of his presumed death. He was listed as missing in action for 1 year and 1 day, then listed presumed dead. Joyce was a dive bomber pilot and was killed on his second mission when he flew his plane through anti-aircraft fire to strafe into silence the guns of a Japanese vessel threatening the safety of other planes in his squadron. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his self-sacrifice, the Purple Heart Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal of World War II. The family received numerous citations and awards for Sanders' actions, including one from then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt and another from A.A. Vandegriff, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Joyce's mother died, never giving up hope she would see him again. Kingfisher's Lowery-Ellyson American Legion Post No. 5 provided the Memorial Service. Joyce's brother, Max Sanders, initiated the Memorial, saying, "I just feel that it is something that needed to be done, and I'm the last of the immediate family to do it." The Sanders family was totally involved in the war effort. Max Sanders served in the Navy, His father, Marsh, served in the Seabees in the Pacific, and Mrs. Sanders worked at the Douglas defense plant in Midwest City (now Tinker Air Force Base) during World War II.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Northern Solomon Islands Campaign (1943-44)
From Month/Year
February / 1943
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand.
The Allies, in order to defend their communication and supply lines in the South Pacific, supported a counteroffensive in New Guinea, isolated the Japanese base at Rabaul, and counterattacked the Japanese in the Solomons with landings on Guadalcanal (see Guadalcanal Campaign) and small neighboring islands on 7 August 1942. These landings initiated a series of combined-arms battles between the two adversaries, beginning with the Guadalcanal landing and continuing with several battles in the central and northern Solomons, on and around New Georgia Island, and Bougainville Island.
In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies wore the Japanese down, inflicting irreplaceable losses on Japanese military assets. The Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands (although resistance continued until the end of the war), and they also isolated and neutralized some Japanese positions, which were then bypassed. The Solomon Islands campaign then converged with the New Guinea campaign.
