Born: January 22, 1916
Died: March 6, 1995
Campaigns Served: None with First Battalion
Highest Rank Attained: Marine Gunner
Decorations:
Gerald Casey enlisted in the Marines in 1936. After completing boot camp at Parris Island, he attended Sea School; he was stationed at the Boston Navy Yard between deployments on ships such as the USS Argonne, USS Arkansas, and USS Arizona. In the summer of 1937, he was sent to guard the Naval Ammunition Depot at Balboa; after six months he returned to Boston and spent the remainder of 1938 at the Navy Yard. Casey spent the next two years at a variety of posts along the East Coast; he was promoted from Private First Class to Sergeant on September 29, 1939, and reenlisted when his first hitch ran out in 1940.
Casey had attained the somewhat unusual rank of Warrant Officer by 1943. Warrant Officers occupied a gray area between the commissioned and noncommissioned ranks; they combined the years of experience of a senior NCO with the leadership abilities of an officer. They filled positions requiring specialized training with particular systems or equipment. Casey was in charge of the supply section of First Battalion in the fall of 1943; under the F-series T/O for a Marine division, this was the only position in a battalion slated for a Warrant Officer.
Gerald Casey was promoted to the rank of Marine Gunner in the fall of 1943; this was a rank equivalent with Chief Warrant Officer that indicated that Casey was knowledgable in the use and deployment of every weapon available to the battalion. In addition to serving as the battalion's mess officer, he would also have laid out plans for individual weapons training exercizes and qualifications.
Casey fell ill in mid-December, 1943; after a month in the Naval Hospital he was transferred out of the battalion. His subsequent service is unknown, but it is likely that he remained in California overseeing training programs at one of the many bases along the coast.
Gerald Casey died in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1995.