Ernest Vance Bunn Jr

First Lieutenant Ernest Vance Bunn Jr. was killed in action on Guam on July 23, 1944 during World War II.  He was 23 years old.

Ernest Vance Bunn was born on July 30, 1920 in Henderson, North Carolina, the son of Ernest Vance Bunn and Virginia May Williams Bunn.  He graduated from Henderson High School in the Class of 1936 and from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1941.  He was employed as an accountant with the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company.

Bunn enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps on November 1, 1942 and received training at Quantico, Virginia and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.  He was commissioned a First Lieutenant and assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Marines, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade. 

The 22nd Marines embarked for the Pacific Theater of War on June 18, 1943. Following deployments to Samoa, Hawaii and Guadalcanal, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade assaulted and landed south of the Orote Peninsula on Guam, the largest island of the Mariana Islands, on July 21, 1944, landing on Beach Yellow 1 which was just north of the City of Agat.    On July 23, with the company's advance halted by severe fire from a heavily fortified enemy strong point during the expansion of the beachhead by Marine assault units, First Lieutenant Bunn, leading a rifle platoon, quickly located the center of resistance and advanced into the fierce barrage to a point within fifteen yards of the hostile emplacement. Utterly unmindful of his own peril, he daringly hurled his grenades into the Japanese position and completely destroyed it. Bunn was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism in destroying the artillery emplacement.

First Lieutenant Ernest Vance Bunn, Jr. is buried in Sunset Memorial Garden in Henderson, N.C.

Last edited: 28 April 2026