World War II Honoree

Dominick Joseph Grossi

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Lockport, New York

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Inducted into the United States Marine Corps April 8, 1942 at Buffalo, New York, with recruit training assigned to the Twelfth Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base Parris Island, South Carolina. Upon his graduation from Boot Camp, he was transferred to Camp Geiger, North Carolina for combat training. As a graduate of the Officer’s Candidate School, in July of 1944 Location: Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, he accepted his commission with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Served as a Leader of an Assault Platoon, attached to Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Twenty-First Marine Regiment a subordinate unit of the Third Marine Division Location: Western Pacific Theater of Operations. His division participated in the amphibious assault on the Volcanic Island of Iwo Jima (Battle Dates: February 19-March 26, 1945) Code Name: Operation Detachment. On March 8, 1945 he was mortally wounded, during combat operations against the Imperial Japanese forces, with burial in the Third Marine Division battlefield cemetery on Iwo. Succeeding hostilities with Japan, the family of this Marine requested that he be buried with Military Honors at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery, Lockport, New York. This American Patriot received the following decorations posthumously: Navy Cross and the Purple Heart. The Navy Cross awarded for his distinguished intrepid actions, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty at the cost of his life, and the Purple Heart, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.