The Heroic Story Of Major Henry Alexius Courtney, Jr. of Duluth, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions During The Battle Of Okinawa.

U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Major Henry Alexius Courtney, Jr. of Duluth, Minnesota, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on May 14-15, 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa.

Courtney received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve in February 1940 and was placed in command of the Duluth unit of the Marine Corps Reserve in March of that year.

At Guadalcanal, he participated in the first U.S. offensive of World War II, commanding a company of the 1st Marine Division.

His next combat action was the Battle of Okinawa, for which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

While serving as executive officer of a battalion of the 22nd Marines, 6th Marine Division on Okinawa, he was killed in action after exhibiting great courage and self-sacrifice, leading to a successful night attack against enemy positions on Sugar Loaf Hill from May 14-15, 1945.

Major Courtney's remains were initially buried in the 6th Marine Division Cemetery on Okinawa. Later, in 1948, his remains were reinterred in Calvary Cemetery, Duluth, Minnesota.

Related topic:

Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player at the University of Iowa.

He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a United States Navy aviator in World War II.

Kinnick was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, and the University of Iowa renamed its football stadium Kinnick Stadium in his honor in 1972.

On June 2, 1943, Ensign Kinnick was on a routine training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington off the coast of Venezuela in the Gulf of Paria.

He had been flying for over an hour when his Grumman F4F Wildcat developed an oil leak so severe that he could neither reach land nor the Lexington, whose flight deck was already crowded with planes preparing for launch anyway.

He followed standard military procedure and executed an emergency landing in the water but died in the process.

Rescue boats arrived on the scene eight minutes later but found only an oil slick. His body was never recovered.

He was one month and seven days away from his 25th birthday and was the first Heisman Trophy winner to die.

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