Master Technical Sergeant Harvey T Wright
Harvey Thomas Wright was born on June 15th, 1913 in Guilford, North Carolina to Sarah Lester and David Wright. He attended school up until the 2nd Grade but left to work at a cotton mill to support his family. Harvey still wasn’t satisfied with his job, so when he turned eighteen, he left to enlist in the Marine Corps on September 14th, 1932 and easily completed boot camp due to his labor intensive civilian occupation. His experience with machinery led to a transfer to the Aviation Service Company 1 at Quantico, and on January 17th, 1933, VJ Squadron 6M. Private Wright honed his skills as an airplane mechanic for the next seven months until he was alerted to an overseas assignment in Haiti. On September 8th, he boarded the USS Henderson and arrived at Port Au Prince five days later to join HQ Squadron, Observation Squadron 9M, 1st Brigade as part of their aircraft crew. During this time, service in Haiti was relatively calm, since US Marines were slowly transferring control back to the Haitian government due to an agreement between them and President Roosevelt. Private Wright’s unit was part of the last group of Marines to leave on August 15th, 1934, and they arrived back to the states on the 19th in Quantico. Wright joined VO Squadron 9M, Aircraft One the following month and left for gunnery and bombing exercises at Parris Island, after which he was promoted to Private First Class. His unit eventually boarded the USS Antares for Puerto Rico in August where they alternated between San Juan and St Thomas, Virgin Islands throughout September. During January 1936, VO-9M participated in Fleet Landing Exercise #2 with the 1st Marine Brigade, and Wright joined VO-7M upon his return to the US in April. His enlistment term expired in September where he was awarded a good conduct medal and changed to the Marine Corps Reserve with Fighting Squadron 4M as a Corporal. Later, he transferred to the Aviation Unit, 6th Reserve District, South Carolina to be closer to his family, which inadvertently led to him meeting Mary Owens. They were married a few months prior to him being officially discharged from the Marines on September 13th, 1940.
Rejoining the Marines
Settling back into civilian life, Harvey moved to Thomasville, North Carolina and worked as a wholesale salesman for a few years, but World War Two raging abroad led to concerns if the fighting would spill to a neutral United States. They were correct; Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and the US declared war on the Axis powers. There was a big need for qualified men to bolster the US armed forces for the war, and this led to Harvey rejoining the Marines with the rank of Sergeant on August 31st, 1943. He was immediately sent to Cherry Point, North Carolina where he bounced around multiple aviation units in September and October before finally settling with VMF 313, 3rd Marine Air Wing at Pollocksville as their section chief on November 10th. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant the following month right before the unit moved to El Centro, California as part of the Base Defense Aircraft Group. This didn’t last for long however, since the squadron moved to Pearl Harbor in March 1944, then to Midway until June. These movements were all training related to prepare for their shipment to the Pacific, which included instruction from Charles Linbergh.
Philippines
After a promotion to Master Technical Sergeant for Wright, VMF 313 left Pearl Harbor on September 6th, 1944 and arrived at the newly captured Emirau Island to begin attacking Japanese shipping channels in support of Marine and Army invasions. As line chief, MTSgt Wright supervised the rows of parked airplanes and oversaw their maintenance which the crews relied on. Additionally, he was also designated as an aviator, yet did not make any combat flights as it contradicted his main specialty. On December 4th, Wright boarded a plane for Leyte Island and landed at Tacloban Airfield one day after the flight echelon arrived. The Battle of Leyte was still raging as VMF 313 began flying sorties in support of the ground troops. While he did not participate in the fighting, he still got a small piece of action. On January 26th, 1945, “An army P-47 ran off the runway, crashed and burst into flames in the vicinity of parking area for the squadron's planes. MTSGT’s John M Gerlits and Harvey T Wright removed the burning clothing from the pilot and carried him away from scene of crash.” For this non-combat life saving action, MTSgt Wright was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. He left Leyte one month later on LST 589 for Zamboanga, Mindanao where heavy fighting was raging to capture the city and surrounding areas. VMF 313 flew out of a nearby airfield to support the battle, but Wright transferred out of the unit the following month. He returned to the United States in mid June at Miramar, San Diego and was discharged on October 1st, 1945, just a few weeks after Japan unconditionally surrendered to the allies.
Rejoining the Marines
Settling back into civilian life, Harvey moved to Thomasville, North Carolina and worked as a wholesale salesman for a few years, but World War Two raging abroad led to concerns if the fighting would spill to a neutral United States. They were correct; Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and the US declared war on the Axis powers. There was a big need for qualified men to bolster the US armed forces for the war, and this led to Harvey rejoining the Marines with the rank of Sergeant on August 31st, 1943. He was immediately sent to Cherry Point, North Carolina where he bounced around multiple aviation units in September and October before finally settling with VMF 313, 3rd Marine Air Wing at Pollocksville as their section chief on November 10th. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant the following month right before the unit moved to El Centro, California as part of the Base Defense Aircraft Group. This didn’t last for long however, since the squadron moved to Pearl Harbor in March 1944, then to Midway until June. These movements were all training related to prepare for their shipment to the Pacific, which included instruction from Charles Linbergh.
Philippines
After a promotion to Master Technical Sergeant for Wright, VMF 313 left Pearl Harbor on September 6th, 1944 and arrived at the newly captured Emirau Island to begin attacking Japanese shipping channels in support of Marine and Army invasions. As line chief, MTSgt Wright supervised the rows of parked airplanes and oversaw their maintenance which the crews relied on. Additionally, he was also designated as an aviator, yet did not make any combat flights as it contradicted his main specialty. On December 4th, Wright boarded a plane for Leyte Island and landed at Tacloban Airfield one day after the flight echelon arrived. The Battle of Leyte was still raging as VMF 313 began flying sorties in support of the ground troops. While he did not participate in the fighting, he still got a small piece of action. On January 26th, 1945, “An army P-47 ran off the runway, crashed and burst into flames in the vicinity of parking area for the squadron's planes. MTSGT’s John M Gerlits and Harvey T Wright removed the burning clothing from the pilot and carried him away from scene of crash.” For this non-combat life saving action, MTSgt Wright was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. He left Leyte one month later on LST 589 for Zamboanga, Mindanao where heavy fighting was raging to capture the city and surrounding areas. VMF 313 flew out of a nearby airfield to support the battle, but Wright transferred out of the unit the following month. He returned to the United States in mid June at Miramar, San Diego and was discharged on October 1st, 1945, just a few weeks after Japan unconditionally surrendered to the allies.
Harvey returned to his wife in North Carolina and had two children by the end of the 1940s. Instead of going back to his salesman job, he instead became employed as a Policeman after moving to Arlington, Virginia. The Wright family moved back to North Carolina in the 1970s and lived in Fayetteville until Harvey sadly passed away on August 31st, 1999, exactly 56 years after he reenlisted for WW2.