Copeland-Charles
Charles Leonard Copeland
PRIVATE
Private (PVT) Charles Leonard Copeland (Service No. 829549) was born on 27 Nov 1920 in Baltimore City, MD. His parents were Joseph Copeland (born Copelovitz), who was born in Russia, and Dinah Copeland (nee Levin), who was born in Poland and died in 1937. Charles’s siblings were Louis, Harry, Gertrude, Ada, and Elsie.
When Charles registered for the draft on 16 Feb 1942 in Baltimore, he was living there with his family and working there for the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Limited. 16 Feb 1942 was the Third Draft and was for men born between 17 Feb 1897 and 31 Dec 1921 who had not previously registered.
Charles enlisted in the US Marine Corps Reserves and later became a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division.
The Division deployed to Auckland, New Zealand, between January and March 1943. In June 1943, it moved onto Guadalcanal for additional training, stopping first at Efate, New Hebrides, for rehearsals (16-20 Oct 1943) and Santo, New Hebrides (21-29 Oct 1943) for shipboard-staging. On 1 Nov 1943 the Division landed as part of the Battle of Bougainville and fought on the island until the last unit to arrive, the 21st Marine Regiment, embarked on 9 Jan 1944.
The Division returned to Guadalcanal in January 1944 to rest, refit, and retrain. The Division’s next operation was the Battle of Guam. From 21 Jul 1944 until the last day of organized fighting on 10 August, the Division fought through the jungles on the island of Guam. During these 21 days of fighting, the Division captured over 60 square miles of territory and killed over 5,000 enemy soldiers. The next two months saw continuous mopping up operations in which the Marines continued to engage the remaining Japanese forces.
The Division remained on the island of Guam for training, until it embarked as part of the landing force for the Battle of Iwo Jima. The 3rd Marine Division was initially in reserve for the battle. However, the Division was committed one regiment at a time when the initial regiments that landed there needed to be relieved.
The 21st Marines came ashore on 21 February, followed by PVT Copeland’s 9th Marines, the 12th Marine Regiment, and the 3rd Tank Battalion. The Marines of these two infantry regiments, supported by the artillery of the 12th Marine Regiment and tanks of the 3rd Tank Battalion, fought on Iwo Jima until the end of organized resistance on 16 March and the subsequent mopping up operations for the next month.
PVT Copeland was Killed In Action on 7 Mar 1945.
PVT Copeland was awarded the Purple Heart.
PVT Copeland initially was interred in the 3rd Marine Division Cemetery, located in Kazan Retto, Iwo Jima. PVT Copeland’s remains were repatriated in 1948.This was done under an initiative known as, “The Return of World War II Dead Program,” the purpose of which was to locate aircraft crash sites, comb former battlefields for isolated graves, and disinter temporary military cemeteries around the globe. The US Army created the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) to perform this task.
AGRS technicians at the Central Identification Laboratories (CIL) then confirmed or established identifications of more than 280,000 individuals. They were then interred with full military honors in accordance with the wishes of their family.
PVT Copeland was buried in the Hebrew Young Men's Cemetery, located at 5800 Windsor Mill Road, Woodlawn, Baltimore County, MD, on 2 May 1948.
The military historian Rick Atkinson has written of the 291,557 American lives lost in World War II combat: “Each death is as unique as a snowflake or a fingerprint. The most critical lesson for every American is to understand, viscerally, that this vast host died one by one by one; to understand in your bones that they died for you.”
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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org ). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Together We Served and Fold3/Find A Grave have smartphone apps that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery and read these stories of WWII fallen.
If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute, please contact me at lwiesenfelder@gmail.com or les@storiesbehindthestars.org