Distinguished Veteran Awardee Blog By: Dale Gardner George Francis Grady Pfc. USMC (Posthumously promoted to Corporal) Navy Cross, 7 August 1942 George Francis Grady served in the 1 st Parachute Battalion, 1 st Marine Division, USMC during World War II. He was born in New York City on April 28, 1920. On October 11, 1938, he enlisted in the USMC at the age of eighteen, eventually being deployed to the Pacific theater with the 1 st Marine Division. The battle for Gavutu (Gavutu-Tanambogo are two islets connected by a causeway), during which Grady earned the Navy Cross and was killed in action, was part of the Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands. Airfields, communications bases, and refueling stations on these islands threatened supplies between America and A...