thedrifter
01-27-08, 08:00 AM
Originally created 012708
Getting to know quiet hero Hargrove was a privilege
By TERRY DICKSON, The Times-Union
ST. SIMONS ISLAND - In Wednesday's column, a brief tribute was paid to Jim Hargrove, a Marine who served on Iwo Jima.
A state flag that is passing through all of Georgia's 159 counties will be presented March 28 to the crew of the USS Georgia. The column suggested the flag also should stop at some Georgia landmarks and at one of Georgia's national cemeteries, where it could be held by a World War II veteran, perhaps 84-year-old Jim Hargrove.
His daughter called Wednesday night to tell me Jim had appreciated the mention and that he died later that day.
I knew it was coming, but not so soon.
As I worked in the yard a few months ago, Jim stopped as he was walking Major, his blocky little beagle. He hadn't been able to play tennis, a game he loved, because there was something wrong with his throat, he said. Sometime before Thanksgiving, he and Major came by again, this time with his son, Jim Jr., a retired Navy commander.
The doctors had diagnosed terminal lung cancer, he said. Jim said he was going to keep walking Major, but a few weeks ago I noticed one of his daughters with Major and knew he had gotten worse.
I went to visit Sunday and talked with him a while - he could only whisper - as he watched tennis in a Marine Corps warmup suit.
He told me again that his illness was terminal and said, "But I'm fine with it. I've had a great life and I've got a wonderful family."
His was indeed a great life. After the Marine Corps, Jim worked in circulation for the Atlanta and Athens newspapers before retiring in 1986 to St. Simons, where he joined a league of aging tennis players. He was skilled and tough and, when his lungs got so bad he couldn't play, he brought out a folding chair and watched.
Jane Del Pino, one of the players, said everyone called him coach because he always gave advice.
At the beginning of World War II, Jim and his four brothers enlisted in the service. Jim chose the Marines and was guarding the Cape May, N.J., lighthouse when he met Jean Jamieson, who was working at a munitions plant. They fell in love and got married the day before Jim shipped out.
"We got married at 8 o'clock at night,'' she said.
Sitting with their mother Thursday night, Jim Jr. and his sisters, Cheryl Hargrove and Candy Duncan, said their father said little of his service except, "It was a duty and a privilege.''
They knew he fought with the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima. In the past few years, he began to talk a little more, Cheryl Hargrove said.
He once told Bill Egan, a tennis friend, of one incident. An athlete his whole life, Jim was the fastest man in his squad so it fell to him to dodge Japanese snipers to get the squad's rations.
Racing along one day, he spotted two men - guys he called them - standing on a ridge looking down on the battle. Jim ran up to warn them about the snipers before they got picked off.
When he did, one of the "guys'' turned to the other and said, "Well, Jimmy, I guess we'd better leave.''
It was then he recognized Jimmy as James Forrestal, secretary of the Navy, and the other guy as a Marine Corps general, Egan said.
On Iwo Jima, Jim had stayed behind with several wounded Marines among flying bullets. He got a Bronze Star for that but later refused a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound.
"He said he didn't think he deserved it,'' having seen so many of his friends killed, Jean Hargrove said.
Knowing Jim's time was short, the Hargrove family gathered at Cheryl's house in Alexandria, Va., for Thanksgiving. He visited the Marine Corps War Memorial, the bronze statue of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima, and the World War II Memorial, of which he was a founding member.
His family has mementos of his life and service that they will treasure. But he took one with him, the jacket he wore on Iwo Jima. It was clean except for some big spots of blood on it; whose, he never said.
His funeral was Saturday at Lovely Lane Chapel on St. Simons and he will be buried Tuesday at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.
Last Sunday, he showed me pictures from his Thanksgiving trip. There was one of him walking with a big, strapping Marine in a battle uniform.
"They just bonded immediately,'' Jean Hargrove told me.
During his visit to the Marines museum, Jim gathered himself before going into one of the more somber exhibits. He stood quietly looking at a display of around 6,000 small Marine and Navy insignias, one for each life lost on Iwo Jima. He told a woman, "I lost a lot of friends over there.''
Those of us who knew him are glad there wasn't one more insignia.
terry.dickson@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405
Ellie
Getting to know quiet hero Hargrove was a privilege
By TERRY DICKSON, The Times-Union
ST. SIMONS ISLAND - In Wednesday's column, a brief tribute was paid to Jim Hargrove, a Marine who served on Iwo Jima.
A state flag that is passing through all of Georgia's 159 counties will be presented March 28 to the crew of the USS Georgia. The column suggested the flag also should stop at some Georgia landmarks and at one of Georgia's national cemeteries, where it could be held by a World War II veteran, perhaps 84-year-old Jim Hargrove.
His daughter called Wednesday night to tell me Jim had appreciated the mention and that he died later that day.
I knew it was coming, but not so soon.
As I worked in the yard a few months ago, Jim stopped as he was walking Major, his blocky little beagle. He hadn't been able to play tennis, a game he loved, because there was something wrong with his throat, he said. Sometime before Thanksgiving, he and Major came by again, this time with his son, Jim Jr., a retired Navy commander.
The doctors had diagnosed terminal lung cancer, he said. Jim said he was going to keep walking Major, but a few weeks ago I noticed one of his daughters with Major and knew he had gotten worse.
I went to visit Sunday and talked with him a while - he could only whisper - as he watched tennis in a Marine Corps warmup suit.
He told me again that his illness was terminal and said, "But I'm fine with it. I've had a great life and I've got a wonderful family."
His was indeed a great life. After the Marine Corps, Jim worked in circulation for the Atlanta and Athens newspapers before retiring in 1986 to St. Simons, where he joined a league of aging tennis players. He was skilled and tough and, when his lungs got so bad he couldn't play, he brought out a folding chair and watched.
Jane Del Pino, one of the players, said everyone called him coach because he always gave advice.
At the beginning of World War II, Jim and his four brothers enlisted in the service. Jim chose the Marines and was guarding the Cape May, N.J., lighthouse when he met Jean Jamieson, who was working at a munitions plant. They fell in love and got married the day before Jim shipped out.
"We got married at 8 o'clock at night,'' she said.
Sitting with their mother Thursday night, Jim Jr. and his sisters, Cheryl Hargrove and Candy Duncan, said their father said little of his service except, "It was a duty and a privilege.''
They knew he fought with the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima. In the past few years, he began to talk a little more, Cheryl Hargrove said.
He once told Bill Egan, a tennis friend, of one incident. An athlete his whole life, Jim was the fastest man in his squad so it fell to him to dodge Japanese snipers to get the squad's rations.
Racing along one day, he spotted two men - guys he called them - standing on a ridge looking down on the battle. Jim ran up to warn them about the snipers before they got picked off.
When he did, one of the "guys'' turned to the other and said, "Well, Jimmy, I guess we'd better leave.''
It was then he recognized Jimmy as James Forrestal, secretary of the Navy, and the other guy as a Marine Corps general, Egan said.
On Iwo Jima, Jim had stayed behind with several wounded Marines among flying bullets. He got a Bronze Star for that but later refused a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound.
"He said he didn't think he deserved it,'' having seen so many of his friends killed, Jean Hargrove said.
Knowing Jim's time was short, the Hargrove family gathered at Cheryl's house in Alexandria, Va., for Thanksgiving. He visited the Marine Corps War Memorial, the bronze statue of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima, and the World War II Memorial, of which he was a founding member.
His family has mementos of his life and service that they will treasure. But he took one with him, the jacket he wore on Iwo Jima. It was clean except for some big spots of blood on it; whose, he never said.
His funeral was Saturday at Lovely Lane Chapel on St. Simons and he will be buried Tuesday at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.
Last Sunday, he showed me pictures from his Thanksgiving trip. There was one of him walking with a big, strapping Marine in a battle uniform.
"They just bonded immediately,'' Jean Hargrove told me.
During his visit to the Marines museum, Jim gathered himself before going into one of the more somber exhibits. He stood quietly looking at a display of around 6,000 small Marine and Navy insignias, one for each life lost on Iwo Jima. He told a woman, "I lost a lot of friends over there.''
Those of us who knew him are glad there wasn't one more insignia.
terry.dickson@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405
Ellie