In Memory of
Army Private First Class
Marvin LeRoy Gunderson
Hurley, South Dakota
Turner County
March 4, 1923 - April 3, 1945
Killed in Action at Okinawa, Japan

Marvin LeRoy Gunderson was born March 4, 1923, near Hurley, South Dakota.  He was the son of Herman E. and Christine Gunderson.  They were the proud parents of nine children: Harvey, Russell, Kay, Marvin, Lee E., Jerome, Lois, Eunice and Harold.  Marvin attended Parker High School and was active in basketball and FFA (Future Farmers of America), and he enjoyed hunting and roller skating.  Rod Hall, a member of the class of ‘45, recalls Marvin as being a member of the 1940 championship basketball team.  “He played in the ‘new gym’ at Parker.  Just a few years later at his memorial service, his graduation picture was displayed at that very same gym,” said Hall.  Marvin graduated in 1941 and after high school he attended one semester of college at Brookings.  Marvin’s sister Eunice, who was in the eighth grade when Marvin was killed, remembers the following:

By this time, Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the U.S. was at war.  The airplane plants
around Wichita, Kansas, were working around the clock to build planes for the war effort and
workers were needed.  Marvin knew the wages at the Boeing plant were good and he felt a need
and a desire to help his country and his family.

Times had been very hard in South Dakota because of the depression and the terrible drought
of the thirties.  Marvin saw an opportunity to earn good wages and a chance to help his family
financially be sending money home.  He moved to Wichita and worked for the Boeing
Company for about two years.  Our family remembers him as a very thoughtful and generous
brother.  This eleven year old felt very rich when he sent me a dollar bill for my very own.

Marvin entered the army on June 28, 1944, in Parker, and after being drafted he went to basic training in Camp Fannen, Texas.  After finishing his training, Pvt. Gunderson was sent overseas in December 1944 to fight the war in Okinawa, Japan.  His ship docked at Hawaii for a short time and Pvt. Gunderson took the opportunity to make a phonograph recording where he greeted each one of his family members by name.  “I remember him telling about the wonderful winter weather and the outstanding scenery and the beautiful beaches.  He expressed a wish to someday be able to take Mom and Dad to Hawaii,” recalls Eunice Duerksen, Pvt. Gunderson’s sister.

Private First Class Marvin LeRoy Gunderson was only twenty-two years old and had only been in the army for nine months when he died in Okinawa, Japan on April 3, 1945, when serving with Company B, 32^nd Infantry, Seventh Division, and was given the Purple Heart, posthumously.  Pvt. Gunderson was buried at Okinawa Ryukyus Islands and was returned to U.S. soil January 9, 1949, aboard an Army Transport under Sergeant Jack Pendelton.  Memorial services were held for Pvt. Gunderson on July 15, 1945, in the Parker High School auditorium and on February 20, 1949, at the time his body was returned to the United States, at the Grace Lutheran Church in Parker.  Pvt. Gunderson rests in the family plot at Rose Hill Cemetery near Parker.

In 1999, while serving with the U.S. Marines, Chip Gunderson, a grand nephew of Pvt. Gunderson’s, visited the memorial at Okinawa.  He found his great uncle’s name among the 237,318 names inscribed there.

At the time of Pvt. Gunderson’s death, the letter sent to Mrs. Christine Gunderson, Pvt. Gunderson’s mother, didn’t provide much additional information about her son’s death, but the commanding officer, Major General J.A. Ulio, expressed his sympathy, “I know the sorrow this message has brought you and it is my hope that in time the knowledge of his heroic service to his country, even unto death, may be of understanding comfort to you.”  

Marvin LeRoy Gunderson was a great soldier.  He gave his life for his country.  We will always remember him as a great soldier who sacrificed his life for the United States.

This entry was respectfully submitted by Brock Nugteren and Justin Farland, 11^th Grade, Parker High School, Parker, South Dakota, April 30, 2002.  Information for this entry was provided by Eunice Duerksen, sister of Pvt. Gunderson, Rod Hall, friend of Pvt. Gunderson, and an application for soldier’s bonus record.