Born: May 29, 1923
Died: January 7, 2010
Campaigns Served: Namur, Saipan, Tinian (wounded)
Highest Rank Attained: Corporal
Decorations: Purple Heart
Virgil Cawood was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 1923. "Virgie" was the second youngest of Van Henry and Cassie Cawood's family. Cawood grew up in Arkansas, and started his career in the Marines around the age of twenty. He was assigned to the machine gun section of Able Company, 24th Marines, where he became close friends with fellow gunner Jeff "Tiny" Jowers. "Jack" Cawood and Jowers became the company's jeep drivers.
Cawood, a "quiet, laid back kind of guy" (according to George Smith), saw combat on Namur and on Saipan. Smith remembered seeing Cawood and Jowers together after Able Company was clobbered on June 22. They handed the wounded Smith several bottles of captured Japanese red wine, which he shared with his assistant "Cease" Stafford.
Jack Cawood also saw service on Tinian, where he was evidently wounded in August, 1944. The Tucson Daily Citizen ran a notice of his wounding on October 19, giving his mother's address as Bowie, Arizona. Cawood returned to the company, but was sent to the transfer center of the Fleet Marine Force on February 10, 1945.
Cawood was back in the United States by mid-1945. He married Eleanore Maxine Rakes on June 28, 1945 (interestingly, his brother Murlin Cawood married Maxine's sister Georgine in 1941). Jack Cawood worked as a teacher and vice-principal for the Bentonville School System, and with the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
Jack Cawood died in a hospital in Texarkana, Arkansas, in early 2010. His obituary is hosted by the Chandler Funeral Home.