lest we forget

DICKSON, GROVER LEE

Rank / Branch:

  • CORPORAL, U.S. MARINE CORP

Date Of Birth:

  • 1939-03-15

Country Of Loss:

  • SOUTH VIETNAM

Status:

  • HOSTILE, MULTIPLE FRAGMENT WOUNDS

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:​

  • GROUND

Other:

  • MARRIED

Unit:

  • THIRD MARINE DIVISION

Date Of Loss:

  • 1966-11-11

Loss Coordinates:

  • QUANG TRI

Catagory:

  • BODY RETURN

Awards & Decorations:

  • SEE BIO

VETERAN HAGI0GRAPHY

  • DICKSON, GROVER LEE, CORPORAL, U.S. MARINE CORP, MIDLAND, MIDLAND COUNTY, TEXAS

AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

  • NAVY CROSS, PURPLE HEART, GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL, NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL, VIETNAM CROSS OF GALANTRY WITH PALM, VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL, VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL, MARINE CORP COMBAT ACTION RIBBON

BIOGRAPHY

  • Grover Dickson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Guy Dickson and Pauline Christine Cason. A brother, Gary Reginald Dickson was born in San Antonio, June 17, 1940. Grover's parents divorced in 1942 and both boys remained with their father. Mr. Dickson worked on a dairy and also drove a bus for Greyhound during World War II. His father married Marjolie Merle Jackson of Athens, Texas in 1945. They both worked for Greyhound. This marriage produced two sons, Arlen Earl Dickson, born January 13, 1946, in Waco and Ronny Ray Dickens born May 13, 1947, in Houston. Marjolie became the only mother that Grover and Gary knew.
  • After the war, Grover's father went to work for Southland Corporation where he worked in the dairy division. The family moved quite often as new stores and operations were being opened. Grover attended schools in Waco, Houston, Brownsboro (a small community outside of Athens), and Dallas. His brother, Arlen indicated that Grover wanted to go into the Marine Corp as soon as he could. Grover and a friend took off from school and went on an adventure running around the southeast. When he returned, Grover insisted he wanted to go into the Corp. With a doctored birth certificate and his father's signature, Grover joined the Marine Corp at age 16, in 1955. He served a four-year enlistment and was separated in 1959 at age 20. He remained active in the Marine Corp Reserves. He married the first time in San Diego in 1961 and that marriage ended in divorce in 1963.
  • Grover worked a series of jobs. He worked for Southeastern Chemical Company in Midland where his parents were living and then he worked around Texas and Louisiana. In 1964, he was working in a shipyard in New Orleans.
  • He was not happy with the work opportunities. The Marine Corp was offering a re-enlistment bonus, credit for pay for his previous active duty and Marine Corp Reserve duty, he elected to return to active duty in 1965 with a rank of Corporal for a four-year enlistment. He re-enlisted from New Orleans, Louisiana and he used that as his home of record. He married Elaine Malone a divorcee with three small girls, in San Diego after had served six months in Vietnam in February 1966. She was from Pasadena, Texas.
  • He had begun his tour in Vietnam with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division as a squad leader with the 2nd Platoon in August 1965. He volunteered to extend his tour by six months. His unit operated around hill 400 and what was known as the Rock Pile near the DMZ. He was killed in a firefight with the V.C. on Hill 400 in Quang Tri province. His family had been in contact with a Navy Corpman who was with him and who took care of his body. The Corpman indicated that Grover suffered from multiple fragmentation wounds from a grenade and a gunshot wound to the head. For his actions that day, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award for valor.
  • He was buried with full military honors in the New Hope Cemetery in Athens, Texas. Grover's great-great grandfather had donated the land for the church and cemetery.
  • Grover was survived by his parents, his wife and three small stepchildren, his brothers- Gary, Arlen and Ronny. His brother, Gary and father are now deceased and rest next to him. His mother now lives in Tyler, Texas. His younger brother, Gary drown at Cedar Lake in 1971 and his father passed away in 1982. His brother, Arlen splits time between Midland and Horseshoe Bay, Texas; and brother, Ronny lives in Houston. The family lost contact with Grover's wife, Elaine Dickson many years ago. She was last living in Pasadena, Texas.
  • NAVY CROSS Citation Announcement: *DICKSON, GROVER LEE Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps Company K, 3d Battalion, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein.) FMF Date of Action: November 11, 1966 CITATION: The Navy Cross is presented to Grover Lee Dickson, Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism as squad leader of the Second Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Third Marines, Third Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in Republic of Vietnam during Operation PRAIRIE on 11 November 1966. When the Second Platoon came under heavy enemy automatic weapons fire during a search and destroy mission which seriously wounded his platoon commander and two other Marines, Corporal Dickson quickly formed his squad into an effective fighting force. Seeing a wounded Marine in front of his position, he charged forward, with complete disregard for himself, and succeeded in carrying his wounded comrade to safety. Then, realizing that his platoon commander lay seriously wounded beneath the aperture of an enemy bunker, Corporal Dickson seized a grenade launcher and tried to quell the automatic rifle fire coming from the enemy emplacement. Aware that this action was not successful, he returned to his squad's position, picked up a fragmentation hand grenade and, without regard to the unrelenting fury of automatic weapons fire, charged the bunker. He threw the grenade through the aperture and momentarily neutralized the position, enabling the removal of his platoon commander to a safe location and subsequent evacuation. Automatic weapons fire again erupted from the same bunker. Ignoring the personal dangers involved, Corporal Dickson seized two hand grenades and charged the bunker again, but before he could reach his objective, he was mortally wounded. His daring initiative, valor and selfless efforts on behalf of his comrades were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country. Authority: Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals Born: 3/15/1938 at Fort Worth, Texas Home Town: New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Patrol Probes 'Street Without Joy' But Marines Find 'Charlie' Illusive By Ward Just - Washington Post Foreign Service CAM LO, South Vietnam - In a valley as emerald green and peaceful as Ireland, a battalion of American Marines broke camp and headed for high ground. They carried 70 pounds of gear in packs, and moved down into a draw, sloshed across a stream, and up again to a plateau. The plateau would put them within range of mortar fire from Mutter Ridge, the tangled bombed-out ridge that contains Hills 400 and 484, the hills for which the 3rd Battalion, Fourth Marines fought a week last month. Those hills were later deemed not worth occupying, so the "three/four" Marine Force ("Mutter was its call sign) moved off them and back into the Marine base area at Dong Ha. The 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines took its place. This is the area dominated by the "Rock Pile," the 800-foot-high mountain that guards the junction of four valleys. Looking north, a ridge called "The Razorback" is to the west and the plateau is to the east, the Mutter Ridge is directly north, with a valley in between. NOT EVEN SNIPERS There is no enemy fire now, not even a sniper round. Friendly mortar and artillery boom each night, but the targets are ephemeral. The Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Pappy DeLong, is an advocate of patrols. So, his men patrol. Corp. Grover Dickson, a 29-year-old squad leader from Houston, took 20 men Sunday afternoon and went in search of 23 persons who were traveling down Route Nine, Bernard Falls' "Street Without Joy," just five miles to the south. They might have been refugees, or they might have been the enemy. Dickson left a wife and three small children to re-enlist in the Marine Corps, and now he says he is older than his platoon sergeant. The men, he says, are lean and mean. They have been in Quang Tri Province only three days, after more than a month in Okinawa reconstituting the battalion which was badly hit during its tour in the priority pacification areas near Danang. "GRUNT" One private, or "grunt" as the Marines call their enlisted men, has been in Vietnam for 11 months averaging about one patrol a day, and can count on the fingers of one hand the times there was enemy contact, apart from the booby traps and mines. This patrol is no different: two dud mortar rounds found, a set of footprints inspected, a tiny bombed ut church searched, and a long inquiry on whether or not a tree on a ridgeline was a Communist watching the movement of the squad. Dickson placed the squad in a field just below Route Nine, where e 23 suspects were meant to come through. Machine guns were placed east and west, and the grenadier south and riflemen north. Then Dickson radioed his company commander asking to investigate. The patrol moved forward. There were not 23 Charlie or of anybody else, and in 90 minutes the patrol was back at the battalion command post. The corporal, the colonel, the major, and other expressed regret that there was no action. In ten days, they promised, there would be some and it would be wise to be around "Three/Three" then. Washington Post November 8, 1966
  • MIDLANDER KILLED IN ACTION Marine Corporal City's First Viet Nam Fatality Grover L. Dickson, a 27-year-old Midland Marine who "felt like doing something worthwhile," has become the city's first fatality of the war in Viet Nam. Dickson, a Marine corporal, was killed Friday in the vicinity of Kuang [sic] Tri, South Viet Nam, in action against Viet Cong forces. A Defense Department telegram received at 3 a.m. by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. E. Dickson, 4303 Andrews Highway, said the Marine received multiple fragmentation wounds to the body. "He felt that he was doing some good there," his mother told The Reporter-Telegram this morning. VIETNAM VOLUNTEER Dickson served a four-year hitch in the Marine Corps from 1956-1960 and re-enlisted in November 1965, volunteering for service in Viet Nam. He had been scheduled originally to leave Viet Nam for stateside duty next month but had again volunteered for an additional six months there. Mrs. Dickson said her son was stationed with the 3rd Marine Battalion near Da Nang. She said she and her husband hadn't been informed that the division had moved into the Kuang Tri [sic] area where young Dickson was killed. FORT WORTH NATIVE Dickson was born in Fort Worth March 15, 1939 and attended schools in Dallas, Houston, Brownsville [sic; should be Brownsboro] and Waco. He first enlisted in the Marines immediately after high school. He formerly was employed by Southeastern Chemical Co here and listed Midland as his home. Mr. and Mrs. Dickson have lived in Midland the last two months. He is the manager of Cabell's Oak Farm Dairy. Midland REPORTER TELEGRAM Wednesday, November 16, 1966
  • WIFE RECEIVING HIS NAVY CROSS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS 1965
  • NEW HOPE CHURCH CEMETERY, ATHENS, TEXAS
  • NAVY CROSS, SECOND HIGHEST COMBAT DECORATION FOR VALOR IN BATTLE