Sixth Marine Division

Sixth Marine Division News and Updates

Pulitzer Prize winning author Buzz Bissinger with his son Zach. Buzz's father Gerry was in the Sixth Division (4th Mar-1-C).

Friday Night Lights Author Writing Book about Sixth!

We are excited to report that Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights,
has secured a contract from HarperCollins to write a book about the
Mosquito Bowl (a game played between two regiments of the Sixth Division on Guadalcanal on Christmas Eve 1944) and its aftermath, the Battle of Okinawa.

The book is expected to come out around Father's Day 2022.

For Buzz the book is a way to thank his father Gerry (4th Mar-1-C) and fellow Marines who fought in the battle.

Buzz wants to talk to as many veterans as he can. And lineal descendants -- if you have materials from your father’s service, he wants to talk to you too.

Read Buzz's own words about the book and how you can help him.

Division Colors Finally Make It to Quantico!

DC Rigby, Ross Laporte, Watson Crumbie, Ken Wells, Neal McCallum, Leonard Turner, and Harry McKnight with the Sixth Marine Division Colors at the National Museum of the Marine Corps

The Sixth Marine Division’s flag was first unfurled on Guadalcanal when the Division was formed in 1944. We’re not sure what path it took to get to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Museum (MCRDM) in San Diego, but that’s where Watson Crumbie (29th Mar-1-C) found it decades later, hanging in a back hallway.

When the National Museum of the Marine Corps opened in 2006, virtually everyone thought that’s where the colors belonged. But getting them there was no simple feat. Many people tried, but they ran into endless roadblocks and red tape.

Then in early 2020, our Historian, Laura Lacey, took on the challenge. Anyone who knows Laura knows she is persistent. With a capital P. She does not give up! Even a worldwide pandemic did not stop her. Many people helped (they are too numerous to mention) but in the end it was Laura’s persistence that brought the colors to the museum where they belong. Thank you, Laura!

The colors were on display when we visited the museum at our 50th and Final Reunion in September 2021. They are now being examined for possible restoration, and then they will be reframed. Once that task is complete, we are hopeful they will be displayed permanently at the museum.