Planning Meeting, Iwo Jima, 1945. Graves Erskine is center sans cover. From the Graves B. Erskine Collection (COLL/3065) at the Marine Corps History Division.
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Graves B. Erskine was born in Columbia, Louisiana on 28 June 1897. He graduated high school as valedictorian at age 15 and attended Louisiana State University in 1912, volunteering for the Louisiana National Guard and seeing combat on the Mexican border four years later. He joined USMC reserves until graduation, and upon graduation reported officially for duty in June of 1917.
Erskine served in World War I as a platoon leader in the 6th Marine Regiment, fighting at the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, Bouresches and Soissons. He was severely concussed by a German shell in the St. Mihiel Offensive and evacuated back to a US hospital in October of 1918, where he underwent nine surgeries in nine months. At war’s end he was awarded the silver star medal for bravery.
For the next few years he worked various positions; a recruiting officer in Kansas, in foreign shore duty in Haiti and Santo Domingo, and upon the U.S.S. Olympia. He was assigned Quartermaster Depot of the Quantico Marine Barracks. He completed instruction at the U.S. Army and Infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia, and returned to Quantico as an instructor with the Marine Corps Schools. For the next few years he toured in Nicaragua and China. Between foreign duties he trained at the Command and Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and taught at the Pennsylvania Navy Yard’s Basic School. After his return he spent three years as section chief at the Marine Corps School in Quantico. He acted as Executive Officer of the 5th Marine Division at Quantico following their reactivation and followed them to Guantánamo Bay in February of 1941.
With the beginning of World War II, he was serving as the Chief of Staff of Major General Smith, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet in Alaska. He is known for pioneering several ambitious amphibious tactical doctrines. Erskine was promoted to Brigadier General in November of 1943 and assigned Deputy Commander of the V Amphibious Corps, embarking for the Pacific. In the Pacific theatre he fought in the battles of Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Most notably, after his promotion in 1944 he led the battle of Iwo Jima to success in February and March of 1945.
Immediately after the war, as Commander of Guam, he organized vocational schools for the newly-disbanded Marines to facilitate their return to civilian life. In 1950 he commanded the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, California, acted as Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic in 1951, and retired in 1953 by special act of Congress. From 1953-1961 he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense. He died in Maryland in 1973, and he is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
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