James Matthew ("Jim") Quinn

James Matthew (“Jim”) Quinn was born in Erie, PA, on June 3, 1941, the third of seven children born to Frank B. and Mary Harrington Quinn. He attended St. Andrew’s grade school and Cathedral Prep before heading to Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. In June 1942, at the end of his junior year at Holy Cross, Jim enlisted in the military and was in active domestic service from December 30, 1942 until November 1, 1943, by which time he had earned his Bachelor of Science degree. He trained at Parris Island, South Carolina, and attended officers’ school in Quantico, Virginia, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He was subsequently promoted to first lieutenant.
Jim served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as First Lieutenant with Company G of the Fourth Marines, later Sixth Marine Division. In November 1943, he was sent to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. While in New Caledonia, he was part of a supply unit, but transferred to an active unit in June 1944. The Sixth Marine Division was formed from the Fourth, Twenty-second, and Twenty-ninth Marines, and was activated at Guadalcanal on September 7, 1944, where Jim underwent extensive training from October 1944 through January 1945.
In the spring of 1945, the Sixth Marine Division was sent to Okinawa, landing on April 1, 1945. He and the members of Company G engaged in heavy fighting shortly after their arrival. Jim survived the battle, but eighty-three members of Company G perished. Two months into the fighting at Okinawa, Jim wrote a letter to his family from a rest camp, noting how glad he was to be at the camp after participating in the heavy fighting. It was the last communication from him before his death a few days later.
On June 4, 1945, the day after his 24th birthday, First Lieutenant James Matthew Quinn was killed during a battle on the Oroku Peninsula at the southern end of Okinawa Island. Japanese forces had carved out caves into the steep cliffs overlooking the water, enabling them to monitor the movements of the American troops as they made an amphibious landing onto the peninsula in the early morning hours of June 4. Jim died that day in the Battle of Okinawa, which continued until the U.S. forces secured the island on June 22, 1945.
In addition to his family, Jim was survived by his fiancée. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.