MARCUS P. MERNER, LTJG, USN
Marcus Merner '47
Lucky Bag
From the 1947 Lucky Bag:
Marc Paul Merner
Palo Alto, California
Long after the strains of Marc's guitar have died away, we shall still recall some of the amusing ways in which he labored to acquire professional knowledge and enjoy himself simultaneously. This philosophy frequently piled him up on upperclass reefs during plebe year; but after that, life was a breeze, giving the energetic lad time for dragging, wrestling, boxing, and thinking of pretty girls, no doubt. "Right a hair, left a hair," Marc's coming on deck ready for a bull session on anything from sex to seamanship. Whatever the next port may be, Marc's cutting water; he's in no hurry, but he'll get there.
The Class of 1947 was graduated in June 1946 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.
Marc Paul Merner
Palo Alto, California
Long after the strains of Marc's guitar have died away, we shall still recall some of the amusing ways in which he labored to acquire professional knowledge and enjoy himself simultaneously. This philosophy frequently piled him up on upperclass reefs during plebe year; but after that, life was a breeze, giving the energetic lad time for dragging, wrestling, boxing, and thinking of pretty girls, no doubt. "Right a hair, left a hair," Marc's coming on deck ready for a bull session on anything from sex to seamanship. Whatever the next port may be, Marc's cutting water; he's in no hurry, but he'll get there.
The Class of 1947 was graduated in June 1946 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.
Loss
From Find A Grave:
USNA Class of 1947, Lieutenant Junior Grade Merner was the pilot of a F4U-4 Corsair fighter with Fighter Squadron 192 aboard the carrier USS PRINCETON (CV-37). On January 28, 1951, while on a combat mission, his aircraft was hit by small arms fire and the engine lost oil pressure and suffered a runaway propeller. He ditched the aircraft off Sinpo, Korea, but he was never recovered.
Awarded : Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Marcus attended Daycroft High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1941. He played football, basketball and baseball.
In 1935, he lived in New Canaan, Connecticut; and in 1940, he lived in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Survived by his mother Cathleen Brooks of San Mateo. His sisters were Mary and Barbara. His parents were married in 1916 and divorced by 1930. His father, Paul, remarried, and in 1940 he was a manager of a retail lumber store in Palo Alto, California.
Korean War Action
From the Tulare Advance-Register, May 2, 1951, located by Kathy Franz:
Ensign Marvin Holgren, a Corsair fighter plane pilot, recently completed over 50 missions. When asked which mission over Korea impressed him most, he told this story.
“Well, I guess my most interesting hop happened last Dec. 23 when Lt. (jg) Marcus Merner and myself were over Hungnam, directing naval gunfire for a cruiser covering the evacuation.
“We had a full load of everything, Napalm bombs and several hundred rounds of 50 calibre. When we got over the city, we made contact with the cruiser out in the harbor and they wanted us to recon the area and report targets for her big guns. This was the first time either of us had acted as the ‘eyes’ for a ship’s guns.
“We flew down and you never saw so much activity! Our troops and trucks were running in every direction. The city was alive with people who looked like they had about six jobs to do all at once. The Commies were watching all this from the hills surrounding Hungnam, apparently laying low, waiting for nightfall to renew their attacks on our troops.”
On the edge of town in open fields, Holgren said, great bunches of civilians were grouped. Just standing there. Some would wave to the Corsair pilots when they came near and some didn’t move at all. Holgren said it was rather pathetic to see them, because they were probably from nearby villages the navy was blasting away, cleaning out all possible hiding places for the Commies.
“We flew over an area from where it was reported Commie fire had come before dawn and there we saw a lot of gasoline drums. Merner and I thought we could take care of this target with napalm, so we worked it over good. Sure enough, the whole works went up.”
Ens. Holgren said that later, near the same area, they spotted some more gasoline drums near a large building that probably was being used by the Reds for a command post. They got four direct hits with 100 pound bombs and completely destroyed the structure.
“Now we started pointing out targets for the cruiser,” Holgren said. “As our marines pulled out of fox-holes and trenches and made their way to the beach, the Reds would move up closer and take over the vacated fox-holes. On a slope of a hill at the northern side of the city I noticed flashes of small arms fire coming from the fox-holes. Lots of flashes!
“We gave them the location and suggested the type of ammo to use. Then we climbed up to about 6,000 feet and waited for them to fire. The first shell hit and the cruiser men said ‘splash.’ That meant for us to check where the shell hit and to correct the fire. They were a little short and to the left. I gave them the corrections and they fired again. This time it was right on the nose. We gave them the ‘go ahead’ and they really went to work on the Commie concentration. They actually wiped the slope clean.”
After that target Holgren said he and Merner successfully directed the cruiser on two more, then headed for the Princeton.
“I think of that as the best and most interesting mission I’ve had over Korea.” Holgren said. “Because we had good targets and good luck and we could see we were helping a bunch of fellows who really needed us.”
Related Articles
Thomas Tiernan '47 was also in 22nd Company.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
