Detachment 1298

The Marine Corps League Walter Frank Osborne Jr. Detachment 1298 was chartered in 2008 in Sparta, North Carolina.
 
The Detachment honors the memory of the late Marine Corporal Walter Frank Osborne Jr. of Alleghany County.
 

Silver Star
 
Corporal Osborne received the Silver Star medal — the nation’s third highest military decoration for valor in the face of the enemy — while serving as Acting Staff Sergeant during Operation Detachment, fighting Japanese forces on the island of Iwo Jima in World War II.
 
Corporal Osborne “voluntarily advanced beyond the front line to occupy a hill which provided a good observation point of the enemy. Corporal Osborne directed continuous and separate rifle fire against the Japanese entrenched in the infantry objective, thereby materially assisting several squads and occupying the hostile position. During this act, he was wounded and evacuated for medical treatment. His initiative, courage and unselfish devotion to duty accorded with the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps.”
 

Marines raising the Flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima
 

Membership and Purpose

 
The Marine Corps League is a Marine Corps oriented organization comprised of persons who are serving, or have served honorably in the United States Marine Corps, the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and those United States Navy Corpsmen who have trained and served with United States Marine Fleet Marine Forces (FMF) — and have met or exceeded the prerequisites of membership in days “on active duty,” Reserve retirement credits, or devices (the service ribbon clasp or FMF Warfare Device) earned.
 
Interested individuals, who are not qualified to join as regular members of the League, may be accepted as Associate Members.
 
Members of the Marine Corps League join together in camaraderie and fellowship for the purpose of preserving the traditions and promoting the interests of the United States Marine Corps, banding together those who are now serving in the United States Marine Corps and those who have been honorably discharged from that service that they may effectively promote the ideals of American freedom and democracy, voluntarily aiding and rendering assistance to all Marines, FMF Corpsmen and former Marines and FMF Corpsmen and to their widows and orphans; and to perpetuate the history of the United States Marine Corps and by fitting acts to observe the anniversaries of historical occasions of particular interest to Marines.