Elmo M. Haney

Haney was born in Chickalah, Arkansas. Before and after his service during World War I, Haney attended the Arkansas State Normal School, a teacher training college, where he played on the baseball team.{{cite book |author= |date=June 1916 |volume=4 |number=3 |title=Bulletin |url=https://archive.org/details/catalognumber1321arka/page/n221/mode/2up |location=Conway, Arkansas |publisher=The Arkansas State Normal School |page=68 |isbn=}}{{cite news |author= |date=1916-04-14 |title=Henderson-Brown Loses to Normals |work=The Arkansas Gazette |page=13}}{{cite news |author= |date=1921-03-28 |title=Normal Lists 62 in Its Senior Class |work=The Log Cabin Democrat |page=4}} He later graduated from Chillicothe Business College in Chillicothe, Missouri.

Haney enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on July 17, 1918, and trained at Parris Island, South Carolina, and Quantico, Virginia. By October 1918, he had been assigned to the 2nd Separate Machine Gun Battalion at Quantico. Although multiple sources, including Eugene Sledge, claim that Haney saw combat in World War I,{{harvnb|Sledge|2010|p=36}}{{harvnb|Miller|2013a|p=35}}{{cite book |last1=Mace |first1=Sterling |last2=Allen |first2=Nick |date=2012 |title=Battleground Pacific: A Marine Rifleman's Combat Odyssey in K/3/5 |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=40 |isbn=978-1-250-00505-2}}{{harvnb|Ambrose|2011|p=311}} the war ended before Haney could be sent to Europe. On May 16, 1919, he was transferred to Marine Barracks, Boston and discharged.Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798–1958 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798–1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C. [https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1089/T977_173-0047?pid=6468135 Roll 0173]

After teaching school in Arkansas for four years, Haney re-enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 22, 1927, at San Diego, California.Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798–1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798–1892. Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls. ARC ID: 922159. Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives in Washington, D.C. [https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1089/T977_277-0278?pid=4634841 Roll 0277] By 1930, he was stationed in Shanghai and played in the outfield for the 4th Marine Regiment baseball team.{{cite news |author= |date=1944-10-17 |title=Arkansas Veteran Still Killing Japs |work=The Arkansas Gazette |page=2}} In 1933, he was transferred from Marine Corps Base San Diego to Marine Barracks Mare Island, also playing on the baseball team there.{{cite magazine |last=Adams, Jr. |first=Charles S. |date=1934 |title=Fort Lauderdale Baseball |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1934-09_17_9/page/n33/mode/2up |magazine=The Leatherneck |publisher=United States Marine Corps Institute |page=32 |volume=17 |number=9}}{{cite news |author= |date=1933-08-08 |title=Elmo Haney Plays on Marine Baseball Club |work=The Norman Transcript |page=5}} Haney also saw duty in United States occupation of Nicaragua.{{cite magazine |author= |date=1945 |title=Pop's Rugged |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1945-01_28_1/page/56/mode/2up |magazine=The Leatherneck |publisher=United States Marine Corps Institute |page=56 |volume=28 |number=9}}

Before the official American entry into World War II, Haney participated in the Allied occupation of Iceland in mid-1941.{{cite news |author= |date=1944-02-19 |title=It Was Arkansas Day in the Southwest Pacific |work=The Arkansas Gazette |page=4}} In early 1942, he was stationed with the aviation technicians of 17th Provisional Marine Company in Belém, Brazil.{{cite document |date=1942-01-31 |title=Muster Roll of Officers and Enlisted Men of the U.S. Marine Corps, Seventeenth Provisional Marine Company, U.S. Marine Corps, Aviation Technicans, Belem, Para, Brazil |publisher=United States Marine Corps |page=83}}

Haney fought in the battles of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Talasea, and Peleliu with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, where he was one of the oldest to fight in the regiment. Haney held the rank of platoon sergeant and was assigned to company headquarters, serving as a roving senior combat leader in the company.{{cite book |last1=Burgin |first1=R. V. |last2=Marvel |first2=Bill |date=2010 |title=Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific |location=New York |publisher=NAL Caliber |page=106 |isbn=978-0-451-22990-8}}

Eugene Sledge noted many eccentric "old breed" behaviors from Haney, including scrubbing his genitals with a stiff brush, field stripping and cleaning his rifle compulsively, talking to himself, and being "obsessed with bayoneting the enemy."{{harvnb|Sledge|2010|pp=36–38}} Sledge witnessed Haney, a non-commissioned officer, angrily throw coral gravel into the face of a second lieutenant, furiously berating him for not keeping his pistol pointed downrange during a firing exercise.{{harvnb|Sledge|2010|p=37}} During battle, Sledge described Haney as "everywhere at once, correcting mistakes and helping out." A Collier's magazine article chronicling the Marines' action at Cape Gloucester called Haney "a leathery little man, a stickler for discipline, as rigid as a ramrod, a man who knows the book backward."{{cite magazine |last=Bordages |first=Asa |date=1945-06-02 |title=Suicide Creek |magazine=Collier's Weekly |page=32}}

At the Battle of Peleliu, Haney rallied his Marines as they got bogged down and kept them moving forward.{{cite book |last1=McEnery |first1=Jim |last2=Sloan |first2=Bill |date=2012 |title=Hell in the Pacific: A Marine Rifleman's Journey from Guadalcanal to Peleliu |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=243 |isbn=978-1-4516-5913-9}} At the conclusion of the fighting, Sledge asked Haney what he thought of the battle as they shared a cigarette, looking at Peleliu from their ship's railing:

{{Blockquote|text=Instead of the usual old salt comment—something like, "You think that was bad, you oughta been in the old Corps,"—Haney answered with an unexpected, "Boy, that was terrible! I ain't never seen nothin' like it. I'm ready to go back to the States. I've had enough after that."{{harvnb|Sledge|2010|p=156}}}}

Haney shipped out of Peleliu on November 29, 1944,{{harvnb|Miller|2013a|p=228}} and was transferred stateside after being promoted to gunnery sergeant.

At the Battle of Cape Gloucester, Haney received a Silver Star for heroic actions against the enemy, carrying ammunition to the front lines during the thickest of the fighting for Walt's Ridge.{{cite news |author= |date=1944-01-19 |title=Jap Taunt Backfires as Marines Win Battle |work=The Portsmouth Herald |page=5}} The citation reads:

{{Blockquote|text=The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Platoon Sergeant St. Elmo M. Haney (MCSN: 131228), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with the FIRST Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces on Cape Gloucester, New Britain on January 10, 1944. While our forces were engaged in bitter hand-to-hand combat defending a vital ridge, Platoon Sergeant Haney courageously led an ammunition carrying party through dark jungle undergrowth and driving rain to deliver supplies to our front lines, arriving five minutes before the last desperate counter attack when one platoon was completely out of ammunition and the entire line was low. By his expeditious delivery of the urgently needed supplies, he enabled our units to defend their position successfully. Platoon Sergeant Haney's daring initiative and selfless devotion to duty in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.{{cite web |url=https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/36681 |author= |title=St. Elmo M. Haney |work=Military Times |access-date=2022-12-11}}}}

Ethel, Haney's wife, died on July 14, 1972, in Bentonville, Arkansas.{{cite news |author= |date=1972-07-15 |title=Mrs. Ethel T. Haney |work=Northwest Arkansas Times |page=2 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8965165/mrs_ethel_t_haney_northwest_arkansas/}} Haney died January 31, 1979, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and was buried in Benton County Memorial Cemetery in Rogers, Arkansas.{{cite book |author= |volume=3 |date=1975 |title=Cemeteries of Benton County, Arkansas |url=https://archive.org/details/cemeteriesofbent03nort/page/n7/mode/2up |location=Rogers, Arkansas |publisher=Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society |page=61 |isbn= }}

In 2010, Haney was portrayed by actor Gary Sweet in three episodes of the HBO miniseries The Pacific.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150816011410/http://www.hbo.com/the-pacific/cast-and-crew/elmo-gunny-haney |url=http://www.hbo.com/the-pacific/cast-and-crew/elmo-gunny-haney |title=HBO: The Pacific: Elmo "Gunny" Haney |author= |website=HBO |archive-date=2015-08-16 |access-date=2022-12-12}} Haney's character in the series was built largely from recollections in Eugene Sledge's memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.{{cite web |url=https://lawliberty.org/with-the-old-breed-sledge-memorial-day/ |title=With the Old Breed |last=Reinsch II |first=Richard M. |date=2018-05-28 |website=Law & Liberty |access-date=2022-12-12}}

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• {{cite book |last=Sledge |first=Eugene |date=2010 |title=With the Old Breed |location=New York |publisher=Presidio Press |isbn=978-0-8914-1906-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Hugh |date=2011 |title=The Pacific |location=New York |publisher=NAL Caliber |isbn=978-0-451-23023-2}}
• {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Thurman |date=2013a |title=Earned in Blood: My Journey from Old-Breed Marine to the Most Dangerous Job in America |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-1-250-00499-4}}

{{refend}}

{{The Pacific (miniseries)}}

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Category:1898 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War I

Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II

Category:Chillicothe Business College alumni

Category:People from Yell County, Arkansas

Category:Recipients of the Silver Star

Category:United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers

Category:Military personnel from Arkansas