Pvt Thomas Maston Gregory

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
B. MAY 13, 1920 D. MAY 16, 1945 KILLED INACTION
WORLD WAR II

Pvt. Tom Gregory left behind two sons too young to have memories of him and a grieving wife left with nothing but memories of him.

Born and raised in Griffin, Tom was the youngest of seven children, six boys and one girl.

He had a wife and two small sons at home and was consequently exempt from the draft. But Tom Gregory wasn’t going to stay home and let others do the fighting for him. He joined up to do his part.

Nevertheless there must have been reservations about leaving behind his young wife Gladys Elizabeth Gregory, and their sons Victor Lee and Thomas Ray.

He volunteered for the Navy and then transferred to the Marines and thereafter served in the Pacific Theater a a proud member of the 7th Corps 1st Marine Division.

Tom went ashore with his fellow Marines in the invasion of Okinawa in May 1944. Nothing is known of the circumstances of his death except he died there on the 16th day of May 1944. Three days after his twenty fourth birthday.

His body was buried initially with his comrades on Okinawa in the American Cemetery there. In 1949 he was brought home to Griffin where he now rests in Oak Hill Cemetery.

His widowed wife loved him dearly and mourned his death for many, many years.