‘Grand Old Man’ of the Marine Corps to Be Buried with Full Military Honors
Retired Brig. Gen. John D. Groff, the “grand old man of the Marine Corps,” will be buried with full military honors today at Riverside National Cemetery. He was 100 years old.
Groff was the oldest surviving Marine Corps general and one of the last survivors of the World War I Marine victory at Belleau Wood, which earned the 4th Marine Brigade worldwide recognition for its bravery.
A resident of Oceanside since 1969, he died Tuesday while awaiting a medical checkup. Relatives said he had been fighting cancer for three decades.
His last public appearance was Feb. 16, two days after his 100th birthday, when he reviewed a group of graduating recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, where 50 years before he had been in charge of training recruits on the eve of World War II.
At the brief recruit depot ceremony, Groff wore his dress blues and a mass of medals he had been awarded during his 33 years as a Leatherneck. Included were the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart he received for his actions in the bloody World War I Belleau Wood battle in France.
Groff, a gunnery sergeant in June, 1918, was wounded as he led a platoon of Marines down a ravine and behind the German lines, capturing a large force of enemy soldiers. He was promoted to second lieutenant for his Belleau Wood bravery.
He also saw action at Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914; in Haiti in 1915 and as head of a peacekeeping force there from 1921 to 1923; in military forays in Nicaragua in 1927, and again in Haiti in 1928.
Groff considered his most important Marine mission the training of recruits at the San Diego training base, a post he held from 1938 until well into World War II. He also participated, along with then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the dedication of the new Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in September, 1942.
Units from Camp Pendleton will serve as honor guards at his funeral scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Oceanside Mortuary Chapel, and at 2:15 p.m. burial services at Riverside National Cemetery.
During his 33-year career, Groff also served as commanding officer at Camp Elliott, a former training base in Kearny Mesa, and as chief of staff at the Recruit Depot. He retired in 1946 and was promoted to brigadier general.
Lance (Dutch) Parker, a retired Marine chief warrant officer whose father had served with Groff, said of his father’s former comrade:
“We younger Marines who were close to him always called him ‘Pop.’ He was the grand old man of the Marine Corps.”
After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Groff worked for Hughes and Douglas aircraft companies in San Diego, retiring from his civilian career in 1953.
Groff is survived by two daughters, Mildred Ann Hanson of Washington state and Pauline Ethel Ralston of Victorville; a son, John Louis Groff of Poway; 11 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Another son, Goodwin, was killed in action during the Korean War while serving in the Marine Corps.