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1918 - July 25, 1944 |
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He was attached to the 22nd Marine Regiment, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade; the 22nd Marine Regiment was activated on June 1, 1942 at Camp Linda Vista, California – the first regiment designated as an “independent” unit after the start of WWII. They embarked for the Pacific Theater, where they trained for a year and a half – first in Samoa and then in Hawaii – before seeing combat in 1944. The regiment participated in the Battle of Eniwetok in February 1944, where they were the first Marine Corps unit to formally employ fire team tactics in combat. Prior to the 1944 Battle of Guam, it was discovered that some 1800+ members of the regiment had been infected while they were in Samoa in 1943 with the slow manifesting tropical disease Filariasis, which causes Elephantiasis. They were replaced with 500 men that were excess with the 3rd Marine Division and replacements from the United States. This greatly reduced the number of experienced Marines and leaders within the regiment just prior to the invasion. For the invasion of Guam, the regiment, along with 4th Marines and the Army’s 305th Infantry Regiment, formed the core of the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade. On D-Day (21 July), 1/22 landed on Beach Yellow 1 which was just north of Agat, 2/22 came ashore on Yellow 2 and 3/22 in reserve came on land at Yellow 1. In the south at Agat, despite favorable terrain for the attack, the 1st Brigade found enemy resistance at the beachhead to be more intense than that which the 3rd Division found on the northern beaches near Asan. Small arms and machine gun fire, and the incessant fires of two 75mm guns and a 37mm gun from a concrete blockhouse with a four foot thick roof built into the nose of Gaan Point, greeted the invading Marines as the LVTs (Landing Vehicle Troop) churned ashore. The structure had been well camouflaged and not spotted by photo interpreters before the landing nor, unfortunately, selected as a target for bombing. As a result, its guns knocked out two dozen LVTs carrying elements of the 22 Marines. For the assault forces’ first hours ashore on W-Day on the southern beaches, the Gaan position posed a major problem. The assault at Agat was treated to the same thunderous naval gunfire support which had disrupted and shook the ground in advance of the landings on the northern beaches of Asan. When the 1st Brigade assault wave was 1,000 yards from the beach, hundreds of 4.5-inch rockets from LCI(G)s (Landing Craft, Infantry, Gunboat) slammed into the strand. It would be the last of the powerful support the troops of the brigade in assault would get before they touched down on Guam. Sergeant Hope’s name is included on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, Hawaii and at the newly completed War In The Pacific National Historic Park, Memorial Wall* which is located at the Asan Bay Overlook on Guam. The wall contains the names of 16,142 Chamorro and American casualties who suffered or died during the war on Guam.
*Sergeant Hope is listed as KIA on this memorial. |
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 The Guam Campaign |
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 Laden amphibious tractors carry troops of the 22nd Marines in the assault wave to YELLOW Beaches 1 & 2 south of Agat in the Southern Sector. Twenty of the LVT (Landing Vehicle Troops) were blown out of the water before they made it to the beach. |
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Funeral services for Mrs. Mollie Lee Hope were held Sunday afternoon, January 25 at 2:30 o’clock in the First Methodist Church with the Rev. Irving King officiating. Interment was in the Palacios Cemetery. A daughter of Jesse and Susan Alice Tucker Hendricks, she was born on December 1, 1897 and passed away in M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston Friday, January 23. A resident of Palacios for 22 years, she had been an active worker in the First Methodist Church, the Order of Eastern Star and the Pink Ladies. She was preceded in death by her husband, Garret G. Hope, in 1967 and son, who was killed in World War II. Survivors include three sisters, Mrs. Nellie Weeden, Mrs. Cordie Schulte and Mrs. Leon Gregg all of Houston.
The Palacios Beacon, January 29, 1970 |
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Funeral services for Garrett Gordon Hope were held at the First Methodist Church Sunday, August 6, at 3:30 p. m. with the Rev. M. R. Zirkel, Jr. officiating. Interment was in the Palacios Cemetery. A son of Julian L. and Minnie Berkley Hope, he was born at Washington on the Brazos on March 14, 1895 and passed away at Wagner General Hospital Friday night, August 4. He had been a resident of Palacios for 20 years, moving here when retiring from Standard Oil Company of Indiana where he was a district superintendent. Two of his hobbies were working on old clocks and fishing, and in order to be near the water, he served as harbormaster at Yacht Harbor for several years. He was a member of the Methodist Church and Tomball Masonic Lodge, Chapter 1096. Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Mollie Lee Hope of Palacios; a brother, Herbert C. Hope, a sister-in-law, Mrs. Nell H. Hope; two nieces, Mrs. W. D. Blackshear and Mrs. Pete Fowler and one nephew, Hal Hope, all of Houston.
The Palacios Beacon, August 10, 1967 |
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Copyright 2011 -
Present by Carol Sue Gibbs |
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| Created Jun, 24, 3011 |
Updated Oct. 26, 2019 |