Memorial Day is an effective time to recollect the primary Augusta casualty of World Struggle II.
We all know quite a bit about World Struggle II, however not quite a bit about its first Augusta casualty.
Marine Pvt. Thomas B. Scott Jr. was 19 when he died in early 1942 in a service-related airplane crash.
His mother and father informed The Augusta Chronicle they’d been notified of his demise in a Feb. eight telegram from Lt. Gen. Thomas Holcomb, the Marine Corps commandant.
They stated they final heard from their son Jan. 20 when he was within the continental United States, however “the federal government acknowledged that additional particulars in regards to the accident would possibly help enemies of this nation,” The Chronicle stated.
The mother and father stated they’d been suggested to not make public any particulars of the place or how his demise occurred.
Maybe they by no means did.
Newspaper archives don’t present such a narrative, and neither do related accounts in The Atlanta Structure, which additionally reported Scott’s demise. Years after the conflict, he was quietly reburied in Westover Memorial Gardens.
The Chronicle did recall the younger Marine had attended Monte Sano Elementary and the Academy of Richmond County, the place he was described as an excellent soccer participant.
He enlisted within the Marines in June 1941, went to Parris Island for coaching, then off to a particular course at Quantico, Va., in addition to the Marine Faculty in Chicago, the place his household proudly famous he had graduated seventh in a category of 700.
Apart from his mother and father, who lived at 2006 Pennsylvania Ave., Scott was survived by a brother, Whatley Scott; maternal grandparents Mrs. and Mrs. L. Montgomery, of Augusta; 5 aunts, Mrs. R.B. Collier, Charlotte; Mrs. Baxter Williams, Jacksonville; Mrs. James Bennett and Mrs. J.T. Howard, each of Augusta; and Mrs. J.R. Bates, of Blythe; and an uncle, Leck Montgomery, of Augusta.
The town paid tribute to Scott throughout a memorial service Feb. 15, 1942, on the previous Second Baptist Church at Dantignac and 11th streets with the Rev. Archie Brickle in cost, assisted by three different ministers, the Revs. R.E. Mayfield, E.S. Jones and L. Bert Joyner.
They helped many say goodbye to the primary Augustan to die within the conflict.
He wouldn’t be the final, however as we speak they need to all be remembered.
