Here is Lee Marvin in his USMC uniform, pictured in the 1943 produced yearbook for the members of the 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. Most people know Lee Marvin as an actor famous for his roles in movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Big Red One. Before he became an actor, he enlisted in the US Marines in 1942 and served with the 4th Marine Division until he was severely wounded on Saipan on June 18, 1944.
He spent the next 13 months in hospital recuperating from this wound which damaged a sciatic nerve before being discharged in 1945. His wound was severe enough for him to receive disability payments from the military after discharge.
The entry in the year book lists him in Headquarters and Service Company, 24th Marine Regiment. He was later transferred, and at the time he was wounded on Saipan, he was in Company I, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
I have the complete set of all of these 4th Marine Division yearbooks from 1943. There are separate books for the three infantry regiments (23rd Marines, 24th Marines, 25th Marines), the artillery regiment (14th Marines), the engineer regiment (20th Marines), and also books that have special troops like the tank battalion, etc. They are great research tools and they do turn up occasionally on eBay.
Unfortunately, they never did updated volumes of the yearbook later or at the end of the war, so if a Marine was a replacement to the 4th Marine Division after these were printed in 1943, he will not be pictured in a yearbook.
- Lee Marvin WWII USMC photo from 4th Marine Division yearbook
- Lee Marvin WW2 Marine photo in yearbook, fourth row far right
- Twenty Fourth Marines 1943 Camp Pendleton USMC Yearbook
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