By Deborah Larsen
Dennis Evans Youngblood
Dennis Evans Youngblood was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, on November 21, 1924, the son of Dennis and Marie Stanley Youngblood. The family moved to Avon Township when Dennis was a young child. He attended Rochester High School and graduated with the class of 1942. Dennis was a student-athlete who participated in football and boxing at RHS.
After high school, Dennis enrolled in Alma College, where he played football and was part of the school’s 1942 M.I.A.A. championship team.
Dennis entered the U.S. Marine Corps in February 1943. When his unit was shipped overseas, it was involved in some of the heaviest fighting in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Dennis saw action in the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943 and in the Battle of Saipan in July 1944.
Dennis was awarded the Navy’s highest honor, the Navy Cross, for his actions on Saipan. The award was made for “extraordinary heroism in helping stem a Japanese counterattack on Saipan, July 7, 1944.” According to the citation, Dennis dragged several wounded Marines to safety on a sheet of tin while under heavy fire, then set up an automatic rifle and killed 40 enemy soldiers to protect his position.
Following the war, Dennis returned to college, married, and had a family. He returned to service in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War and separated from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1958.
Dennis Evans Youngblood died at the age of 73 on August 26, 1998.