David R Baker was a Marine corporal with the 3rd Marine Division and a proud member of the 9th Defense Battalion (Fighting Ninth) and a member of that Battalion's Tank Group. David left college to join the Marines a month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He island-jumped all over the South Pacific as the Marines were always the first to land on each island. He participated in the Pacific War's D-Day on July 21, 1944 during the Invasion of Guam and was hit by mortar fire during the beach landing at Asan Beach. He was awarded a Purple Heart for his injuries. Among the islands where he fought were Vella laVella, Guadalcanal, Arundel, Kwajalein, Guam, New Georgia, and many other islands in the Marshall Islands, Mariannas, and Solomon Islands. He survived the war and returned to the US to marry his sweetheart, Mary Surgenor, and together had six children. David died in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in 2010, just a few miles from his first training in the Marines at Parris Island. He was laid to rest with a military funeral at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina.
paul659 · Apr 22, 2018
David R Baker was a Marine corporal with the 3rd Marine Division and a proud member of the 9th Defense Battalion (Fighting Ninth) and a member of that Battalion's Tank Group. David left college to join the Marines a month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He island-jumped all over the South Pacific as the Marines were always the first to land on each island. He participated in the Pacific War's D-Day on July 21, 1944 during the Invasion of Guam and was hit by mortar fire during the beach landing at Asan Beach. He was awarded a Purple Heart for his injuries. Among the islands where he fought were Vella laVella, Guadalcanal, Arundel, Kwajalein, Guam, New Georgia, and many other islands in the Marshall Islands, Mariannas, and Solomon Islands. He survived the war and returned to the US to marry his sweetheart, Mary Surgenor, and together had six children. David died in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in 2010, just a few miles from his first training in the Marines at Parris Island. He was laid to rest with a military funeral at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina.