This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Pamela LaVerne Jeans-Historian
to remember
Marine Capt Samuel Thomas Gillespie.
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 Dallas
Last Address 2405 Pennsylvania Ave. Dallas
MIA Date Feb 19, 1945
Cause MIA-Finding of Death
Reason Unknown, Not Reported
Location Solomon Islands
Location of Memorial Manila American Cemetery - Taguig City, Philippines
Marine Scout Bombing Squadron (VMSB-141) was commissioned on March 1, 1942 at Camp Kearny in San Diego, California. On August 30, 1942 they departed San Diego for the South Pacific and arrived at Henderson Airfield, Guadalcanal on September 23, 1942 and became part of the Cactus Air Force (CAF). On the night of October 13â??14, the squadron lost 26 of its 29 aircraft and five officers, including the commanding officer and executive officer, to shelling from Japanese battleships off the coast of Guadalcanal. The squadron fought on the island until November 19, 1942 when they were transferred to the Efate in the New Hebrides. During its time with the CAF the squadron would lose 18 of its 41 officers killed in action.
Capt Samuel Thomas Gillespie, pilotr, who on October 17, 1942 did not return from a patrol. He was listed as missing for one year and a day, then declared dead. Nobody knows what happened.
Other Comments:
Body Not Recovered
Distinguished Flying Cross
Captain Samuel T. Gillespie (MCSN: 0-11362), United States Marine Corps, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight, in actions against enemy Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Action Date: World War II
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Guadalcanal Campaign (1942-43)
From Month/Year
August / 1942
To Month/Year
February / 1943
Description The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.
On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly American, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten the supply and communication routes between the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction on Guadalcanal. Powerful US naval forces supported the landings.
Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November 1942 to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles (five nighttime surface actions and two carrier battles), and continual, almost daily aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November 1942, in which the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea and land with enough troops to retake it was defeated. In December 1942, the Japanese abandoned further efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943 in the face of an offensive by the US Army's XIV Corps, conceding the island to the Allies.
The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theatre. The Japanese had reached the high-water mark of their conquests in the Pacific, and Guadalcanal marked the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to the strategic offensive in that theatre and the beginning of offensive operations, including the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and Central Pacific campaigns, that resulted in Japan's eventual surrender and the end of World War II.