EX-FOOTBALL STAR DIES IN BATTLE FOR
NAMUR
With U.S. Marines,
Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, Feb 4: Big Red died atop a small hill - standing erect and
leading his men for the final extermination of the Jap garrison on Namur Island. Big Red's
name was Lieutenant Colonel A.J. Dyess, of Augusta, Ga. He was a burly red-headed former
Clemson football player who led a reserve battalion ashore on Namur.
Colonel Dyess was
one of the best loved Marine officers. He was impetuous and eager for action. Aboard the
transport his superior officers played a joke on him by framing a fake dispatch informing
him that his battalion would be held back from action and would take over garrison duty on
Kwajalein. Big Red was the unhappiest individual on that ship until he learned the
dispatch was a joke.
When the battalion
finally hit the beach on the afternoon of "D" day, he charged ahead with his men
to support the assualt groups. Within a matter of minutes he was in the front line -
raging up and down, throwing grenades, firing at snipers and continually exploiting
himself to enemy fire. Junior officers remonstrated with him - urging him to take cover.
But Colonel Dyess remained in the front line - bull-voice and energetic. An officer told
me, "Boy! He was giving them hell."
In the last two
hours of combat, Colonel Dyess fell. He had led a group of men up a slight rise to take
over a fresh position. A Jap machine gun opened up as his helmet showed above the rise. A
bullet struck him in the head and killed him instantly. Colonel Franklin A. Hart of
LaJolla, California, his regimental commander said of Colonel Dyess: "He was a true
Marine. He died showing his men how to do it."
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