How did the combat valor of a young Marine from Kearny who selflessly gave his life in the Pacific during World War II intersect with two of the most famous military figures in US history?
Enter Eugene Irving Dockray, who was born in Kearny in 1924 and graduated from Kearny High School in January 1942. He was the youngest of three children of Wesley and Helen Dockray, who lived at 19 Prospect Place. Eugene was an avid musician who enjoyed playing the trumpet in both the high school band and orchestra.
Immediately after graduation, Eugene enlisted in the Marine Corps, aged 17. As a crewmember of a machine gun squad in the renowned First Marine Division, Private First Class (PFC) Dockray went on to fight the Japanese at Guadalcanal, Eastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Palau Islands (Peleliu) battle (80 years ago), where he tragically lost his life in one of the most bitter battles in US Marine Corps history.
Marine casualties exceeded 6,500, of which 1,300 were killed from the First Marine Division.
Per his Silver Star citation, PFC Dockray was painfully wounded at his machine gun on the first day of the island assault on Peleliu — Sept. 15, 1944. He was carried back to the command post and treated by a corpsman, but he refused evacuation and returned to his machine gun where he manned it aggressively under extremely perilous combat conditions — until he was tragically killed in a Japanese counterattack later that first night.
PFC Dockray was 20.
His regimental commander, meanwhile, Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, forwarded his personal endorsement for a posthumous Bronze Star Medal for PFC Dockray based on his gallant actions. Puller would go on to become the among the most decorated combat Marines in the Corps history, winning five Navy Crosses and one Distinguished Service Cross.
He retired at the rank of lieutenant general, has a class of Navy expeditionary ships named after him and his statue sits prominently outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.
That award nomination for PFC Dockray then arrived at the desk of the Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Admiral Nimitz reviewed the citation for a Bronze Star, but he elevated it to a Silver Star, and forwarded his approval to the Secretary of the Navy. Admiral Nimitz was a 5-star Fleet Admiral, one of the select few military figures in US history to achieve that exalted rank. He was also the primary US signatory at the surrender ceremony of Japan in September 1945.
PFC Dockray is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. However, his current tombstone does not reflect his Silver Star Medal — as his grave is entitled to — per cemetery policy. If a surviving family member comes forward to request that addition, the cemetery would consider either an added engraving or a new tombstone to reflect his Silver Star.
PFC Dockray’s actions were also largely unknown to the Town of Kearny as his Silver Star medal was not captured in the town’s military decorations plaque in the Kearny War Veterans Memorial Hall in the Town Hall, which will hopefully be corrected at a future date.
As a footnote, a second Kearny marine, Corp. John L. Miller Jr., who lived at 35 Grove St., was also killed on Peleliu that same day when coming ashore as another member of the First Marine Division. Both PFC Dockray’s and CPL Miller’s names are captured on Kearny’s World War II Memorial. As the 80th anniversary of the Peleliu battle just passed, the Town of Kearny should be very proud of the service and sacrifice of these young marines in that historic island battle.
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