The Terrible Death Of U.S. Marine Corps Major Kenneth Dillon Bailey of Pawnee, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions
The Terrible Death Of U.S. Marine Corps Major Kenneth Dillon Bailey of Pawnee, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions
U.S. Marine Corps Major Kenneth Dillon Bailey of Pawnee, Oklahoma, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on September 12, 1942 near Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.
After graduating from the University of Illinois, Bailey received his second lieutenant’s commission in the Marine Corps in July 1935.
He joined the 5th Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia and became a company commander in June 1941. In February 1942, his unit was redesignated the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. His unit was later sent to Guadalcanal.
On September 12, 1942, Bailey was the commanding officer of Company C, 1st Marine Raider Battalion and led his men in repulsing a Japanese attack during the Battle of Edson’s Ridge.
Despite a severe head wound, he directed his men for more than ten hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat. Bailey was killed in action on September 26, 1942, while heading his men in an attack at the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal.
Bailey was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on September 12, 1942. Bailey was buried on Guadalcanal, but his remains were reinterred in Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville, Illinois.
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No event impacted the NFL the way WWII did. The season was shortened, attendance was low, and some franchises merged or shut down.
The Cleveland Browns suspended play in 1943. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles merged (the "Steagles").
Nineteen active or former players, an ex-head coach and a team executive were killed in action.
The best-known NFL player killed was Al Blozis, who played for the NY Giants and had been “All-League”. Blozis was 6’6” and weighed 250 lbs. He was in the Army and could have claimed exemption from front-line infantry duty because of his size, but he refused.
During basic training, he set the Army record for a grenade throw. In the winter of 1944, just 6 weeks after playing in the 1944 NFL Championship Game, Blozis was killed by German machine-gun fire as he helped look for some missing men in the snow-covered Vosges Mountains in France.
Three men who had played in the NFL or later had connections to it were awarded the MOH, one posthumously. The most famous was fighter pilot Joe Foss, the leading Marine ace of WWII with 26 victories. He later was AFL commissioner from 1960-66 and governor of SD.
Maurice Britt briefly played for the Detroit Lions before the war. He fought in North Africa and Italy and was the first man in WWII to be awarded all 4 of the top medals of valor: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and Bronze Star. He also received four Purple Hearts.
Andrew “Jack” Lummus played with the 1941 NY Giants and received the MOH for his actions during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He destroyed many Japanese positions single-handedly, despite being wounded multiple times, before being killed by a land mine.
Perhaps the most famous of them all was Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. At 19, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He flew 30 missions in a B-17 over Europe, surviving a crash in Belgium on his way back from bombing a German armaments plant in Czechoslovakia.
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