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Fighting
Squadron ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE (VMF-121), Marine Air Group FOURTEEN (MAG-14), FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, in aerial combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area during a period of intense enemy activity from 9 October 1942 to 15 January 1943. During his first tour of duty in this area, First Lieutenant Marontate, as pilot of a fighter plane, led his four-plane division of the flight with such aggressive skill that fifty-six enemy aircraft were destroyed, he personally accounting for nine hostile aircraft. On 5 January leading a section of fighter planes as protection for a task force, he gallantly fought off enemy aircraft which were attacking our vessels and brought down two Japanese dive bombers and one Zero. While escorting a striking force of dive bombers on January 15 in an attack against enemy shipping off New Georgia Island, he succeeded in destroying at least one enemy aircraft before he was shot down by Japanese fighter planes. His superb airmanship, great courage, and fearless devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
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The
President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant William Pratt Marontate, United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession while serving as a Pilot in Marine
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Marontate arrived at the airfield on
October 9. Marontate saw his first combat action the next day, when he helped escort friendly dive bombers which attacked Japanese ships. Marontate quickly distinguished himself as one of the top fighter aces of the squadron, racking up nine aerial victories
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VMF-121 returned to
Guadalcanal for their second tour in late December. On January 5, 1943, First Lieutenant Marontate led his section to break up a Japanese dive bomber attack on American ships. Marontate downed two dive bombers and one
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While at Camp
Kearney in August 1942, Marontate took one of the few operational planes the squadron had and crashed it into a gun emplacement. He was subsequently reprimanded by the squadron's new executive officer,
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with a Zero and had bailed out of his plane. Marontate was listed as missing in action, and was declared dead in
February 1945.
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On
January 15, First Lieutenant Marontate and other members of VMF-121 were escorting dive bombers near
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falling out of the sky with a missing wing. Foss later learned that
Marontate was involved in a
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William P. Marontate's body was never recovered. For his superb airmanship during the
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United States Marine Corps personnel killed in World War II
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William P. Marontate was born on
December 3, 1919, in
158:(December 3, 1919 – January 15, 1943) was a decorated
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592:. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 235–.
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