The Ideal Marine Corps NCO

In David Grossman’s pioneering work, “On Killing,” he describes how most men, even the strong, alpha-male types we often see in the Marine Corps, still have a difficult time dealing with killing other human beings. Most struggle with slaughtering their fellow man and experience PTSD later in life. However, USMC Gunnery Sgt. Albert Daniel Hemphill, born 20 October 1916, did not have these issues. He could kill and keep a calm head during it and afterwards. He is the type of person a nation depends on to go into the thick of battle and secure victories. He might not be the most pleasant person to be around in civilian life, but when the bullets start flying, you definitely wanted him on your team (To quote Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: “You need him on that wall!”). This 6’4”, 210-pound, NCO was a China Marine from the Old Corps—one of the few highly regarded men stationed until 1941 in China to protect American citizens, as well as our political and business interests).

He was a Marine’s Marine and the men loved and respected him for his toughness, knowledge and humor. From 1944-1945 he was the main instructor for the non-commissioned officers in 1st Battalion (21st Marines) in general, and for Charlie Company in particular. This hard-core Marine inspired his men and had a profound effect on them, especially Medal of Honor recipient USMC Cpl. Hershel “Woody” Williams. Williams claimed: “He wanted you to know his name and he made sure you didn’t forget it.” The 3rd MarDiv newspaper wrote about Hemphill after the battle of Iwo Jima: “His men swore [Hemphill]…was the best combat NCO in the Corps.”

His leadership was especially displayed on Guam during the battle there in July 1944. Countering the massive Banzai (Japanese counterattack) on 25-26 July 1944, Hemphill encouraged his men and continued to engage the enemy for hours. Although his men suffered horrendous losses, Hemphill kept the remaining elements organized and combat effective. As the lines were penetrated at several points, the executive officer actually witnessed Hemphill fighting literally hand-to-hand with the “tiny monsters.” One Japanese soldier who had been thrown to the ground tried to rise up and attack the Gunny. As this happened, Hemphill grabbed a “discarded Samurai sword” nearby and chopped away at the enemy several times until he lay lifeless and in pieces on the ground. Screams, shouting, firing and explosions echoed over the ridges. “It was apparent that [the Japanese] objective was to reach the beach in the rear in order to destroy our artillery and the supply dumps.”

The Imperial Japanese Army had penetrated the lines at several points. By morning, Hemphill was one of the few remaining out of his company who was still standing. Over the next few days, the company was refilled with replacements and moved out to attack. They soon came against strong opposition in the hills east of Banzai Ridge, hills that were honeycombed with caverns. Here the Japanese held up the Marines and their tanks. Twenty-eight-year-old Hemphill was the first one to pass the line of departure and led his men against a Japanese force of 300 hidden in these caves on 28 July.

Soon after moving his men out and receiving hostile fire, Hemphill jumped into action, “snaked 35 yards to the Japs flank,” and shot one soldier. When another tried to shoot him from where he hid under an enemy corpse, Hemphill called for a grenade from a nearby Marine. That Leatherneck threw the grenade to Hemphill, but was shot through the forehead by the enemy. Hemphill took the grenade, pulled the pin and threw it at the sniper, killing him with the explosion. Then he led a group that took out a machinegun position that had pinned them down and, in doing so, killed another three Japanese. Noticing a machinegun nest, Hemphill instructed his bazooka men to fire on it, which they did, silencing the gun. Although he received shrapnel wounds to his back, he continued fighting. He became a one-man wrecking crew. As this was happening, Hemphill instructed the Sherman Tanks to advance and engage the Japanese. They blasted the caves with their heavy rounds.

“Some of the Japs…were so stunned they climbed out of the holes” and threw grenades at the tanks, causing little damage. The Marines mowed them down. Hemphill’s outfit attacked numerous caves; it took an hour-and-a-half of working with the tanks to silence them all. “One tank, only 15 feet from a hole [of a cave], fired three shots directly at it [with its 75mm cannon] before hand grenades stopped popping from its entrance.

Two days later, telephones deep in the cave were still ringing. It apparently had been a command post.” Hemphill, his Marines, and their Sherman tanks succeeded yet again in taking out a tenacious enemy, rendering their cave defenses useless. Hemphill received the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his heroics.

After Guam, Hemphill spent hours training his men for the next conflict: Iwo Jima. The day his company was deployed for the island, Hemphill almost drowned in the waters off the coast. As they started to fill their Higgin boats, Hemphill descended the landing net in order to hold it steady in the boat for his platoons. As Hemphill climbed down, a large wave “—bigger than any of the others—went swirling by and the boat pitched downward.” The rope ladder tightened and sling-shotted Hemphill and another Gunny into the “angry sea.”

“There was nothing we could do,” claimed Cpl. Hershel “Woody” Williams. “Our equipment was strapped to our bodies and we could hardly move.” Hemphill was shot over the Higgins boat into the sea while the other Gunny was thrown down between the ship and the craft. Luckily for both, Navy personnel fished them out. The two gunnery sergeants were both “so shaken by their ordeal that they were unable to make the landing.” They came ashore a few days later and their men did not let them forget their mishap by “busting their chops.”

Gunny Hemphill fought on Iwo for more than 30 days, and led his Marines from the front.

He stayed in the Corps, fought in another war in Korea, and then continued to serve until the late 1960s, when he retired. After the war, he took several different jobs, including heading the department of security at Norwood Hospital in Massachusetts during the 1970s and 1980s (I would hate to have seen what he did with those who committed any security breaches there!). He died peacefully in his bed on 21 September 1990, one month before his 74th Birthday.

For more about Gunny Hemphill and the men of Charlie Company, see my new book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08666CNSH/ref=sr_1_2...

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