Private First Class Leslie C Sircy
Leslie Cleveland Sircy was born on December 24th, 1913 in Carthage, Tennessee to Martha Wilkerson and Marion Sircy and was the youngest of their five children. Although he did not attend school, his parents taught him how to read and write while he worked on the family farm from a young age. Leslie later worked for the Davis Cabinet Company and married Hazel in the 1930s. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced the United States into World War Two, Leslie was twenty seven years old, yet he did not want to stray away from helping his country. On May 29th, 1942, Leslie enlisted in the Marine Corps and completed two months of boot camp at Parris Island before joining the Naval Operating Base in Newport, Rhode Island for the next two years as a guard, gaining a promotion to Private First Class. In June of 1944, he was transferred to the Infantry Training Camp at Camp Lejeune for further instruction, and later was a messman with Headquarters Company, Signal Battalion, Special Training Regiment on January 29th, 1945. Just as it looked like PFC Sircy was not going to be deployed to the Pacific, the massive amounts of manpower and replacements needed for the Invasion of Okinawa prompted the Marine Corps to send him to the 54th Replacement Draft on March 14th, and he left the US aboard the USS Admiral C.F. Hughes on April 13th. By the time his unit arrived at Guam to organize, the invasion had already kicked off and Marine replacements were needed fast. On May 20th, PFC Sircy left Guam and arrived at Okinawa a week later to disembark and join Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 6th Marine Division the following day.
Okinawa
The 4th Marines had just been relieved from positions around the Asato River after suffering heavy casualties, but were ordered to make an amphibious landing at Oroku Peninsula on June 3rd. The assault battalions landed under light opposition at 6:00 AM and succeeded in pushing 1,800 yards past the beaches by nightfall. However, the 4th Marines faced increasingly deadly enemy resistance that bogged down their attack on Hill 57. When PFC Sircy’s 2nd Battalion couldn’t fight to the top of a hill, they resorted to infiltrating Japanese tunnel systems and went through them. Hill 57 was finally captured on June 7th, and the 4th Marines began attacking to the left of the 22nd Marines to squeeze the Japanese defenders between them and the 1st Marine Division. Unfortunately, enemy defenses were strong at all points which forced PFC Sircy into a slow and casualty-inducing fight that succeeded in confining the enemy into a 1,000 by 2,000 yard area. During the night, the Japanese launched futile small scale counterattacks across the front lines, and the Marines responded at 7:30 AM with a push of their own. PFC Sircy’s 4th Marines advanced towards the south but could not make strong advances due to enemy fire. The 22nd Marines however, captured Hills 62 and 53 which placed a massive dent in the Japanese line and allowed other units to catch up. On June 12th, the remaining enemy soldiers were forced onto the flat land near Naha Inlet where many fought to the death or killed themselves to evade capture. Their commanders committed suicide shortly after, finishing the 10 day battle for Oroku Peninsula that had cost 2,608 Marine casualties, a number proportionally greater than what was lost capturing Shuri. During the fighting for Oroku, PFC Sircy contracted a sickness that warranted his immediate evacuation back to the United States a day after the battle ended on June 16th. It took over a month until he was admitted to the US Naval Hospital in Oakland, California where he spent three months recovering and heard the news of Japan’s unconditional surrender. Sircy’s service came to an end on November 23rd, 1945 when he was honorably discharged due to a disability and returned to his wife Hazel. They later moved to San Francisco and had a child, Leslie J Sircy, in 1949. Leslie sadly passed away two days after his 78th birthday on December 15th, 1991 and is buried in Contra Costa, CA.
Okinawa
The 4th Marines had just been relieved from positions around the Asato River after suffering heavy casualties, but were ordered to make an amphibious landing at Oroku Peninsula on June 3rd. The assault battalions landed under light opposition at 6:00 AM and succeeded in pushing 1,800 yards past the beaches by nightfall. However, the 4th Marines faced increasingly deadly enemy resistance that bogged down their attack on Hill 57. When PFC Sircy’s 2nd Battalion couldn’t fight to the top of a hill, they resorted to infiltrating Japanese tunnel systems and went through them. Hill 57 was finally captured on June 7th, and the 4th Marines began attacking to the left of the 22nd Marines to squeeze the Japanese defenders between them and the 1st Marine Division. Unfortunately, enemy defenses were strong at all points which forced PFC Sircy into a slow and casualty-inducing fight that succeeded in confining the enemy into a 1,000 by 2,000 yard area. During the night, the Japanese launched futile small scale counterattacks across the front lines, and the Marines responded at 7:30 AM with a push of their own. PFC Sircy’s 4th Marines advanced towards the south but could not make strong advances due to enemy fire. The 22nd Marines however, captured Hills 62 and 53 which placed a massive dent in the Japanese line and allowed other units to catch up. On June 12th, the remaining enemy soldiers were forced onto the flat land near Naha Inlet where many fought to the death or killed themselves to evade capture. Their commanders committed suicide shortly after, finishing the 10 day battle for Oroku Peninsula that had cost 2,608 Marine casualties, a number proportionally greater than what was lost capturing Shuri. During the fighting for Oroku, PFC Sircy contracted a sickness that warranted his immediate evacuation back to the United States a day after the battle ended on June 16th. It took over a month until he was admitted to the US Naval Hospital in Oakland, California where he spent three months recovering and heard the news of Japan’s unconditional surrender. Sircy’s service came to an end on November 23rd, 1945 when he was honorably discharged due to a disability and returned to his wife Hazel. They later moved to San Francisco and had a child, Leslie J Sircy, in 1949. Leslie sadly passed away two days after his 78th birthday on December 15th, 1991 and is buried in Contra Costa, CA.