Lt Jack Chevigny, 1944

Jack Chevigny at Notre Dame, 1934

Jack Chevigny at Notre Dame

Jack Chevigny receives his officer's commission in the United States Marine Corps. Chevigny (then 36 years old) was drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1943 after trying to enlist and being rejected because of a football knee injury he received while playing Notre Dame football. He completed basic training at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Lawrence, Indiana. He was assigned afterwards to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington, a training and staging base. A Corporal in the U.S. Army, he had requested and was granted service in the Marine Corps. He received an Honorable Discharge on June 10, 1943 in order to be released for service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He was directly commissioned a First Lieutenant going on active duty in the Marine Corps Reserve on June 11, 1943 in Seattle. The Marine Corps District Headquarters Induction and Recruitment Station in Seattle immediately used him in a public-relations enlistment poster photo wearing his summer officers service uniform. Afterwards, he was transferred to Officer Indoctrination and Physical Training schools at Camp Pendleton, California. In September 1943, Chevigny was assigned to Camp Lejeune in New River, North Carolina as a physical training instructor, athletic officer, and assistant coach of the Camp Lejeune football team. He soon became head coach, renaming the team (then 0-2-1), the "Camp Lejeune Leathernecks" (they finished 6-2-1). In late 1943, he requested an overseas combat assignment. In January 1944, Chevigny reported for duty at Camp Pendleton, California. After brief duty as an instructor, he was assigned to Headquarters Company, Headquarters Battalion, Fifth Marine Division. He was sent with the 5th Division to Camp Tarawa, Hawaii to train for the assault of Iwo Jima (Operation Detachment) which would include two other Marine divisions of the V Amphibious Corps. He was reassigned for duty as a liaison officer, 27th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division. He went with his unit to Iwo Jima aboard the attack transport, USS Rutland. The 27th Marines landed on "Red Beach 1" and "Red Beach 2" on February 19, 1945 (D-day). 1st Lt. Chevigny was one of the many hundreds of Marines and Navy medical corpsmen serving alongside them that were killed in action on the seven color named and numbered landing zones, each 550-yards wide, that together stretched for two miles of beach on the southeast side of Iwo Jima.

Jack Chevigny. Chevigny became an Notre Dame assistant football coach under Knute Rockne in 1929, and Notre Dame went undefeated that season and the next season winning two National Championships. Chevigny, who received his Notre Dame law degree in 1931, left Notre Dame football after Rockne's death in an airplane crash March 31, 1931 and the 1931 football season. He coached the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL to a 2–6–2 record in 1932, and left that position to become head coach at St. Edwards University, a sister school of Notre Dame, in Austin, Texas. When the University of Texas began looking for a new coach in 1934, Chevigny was chosen for that position. He directed a 7–6 victory over his alma mater, Notre Dame, during the second game played in South Bend, Indiana. The Texas Longhorns finished the season at 7–2–1. The 1935 team didn't play as well and Chevigny finished his coaching career at the University of Texas with a 13–14–2 record in three seasons and was the only state of Texas head coach to have an overall losing record. In 1937, Chevigny resigned his Texas Longhorns coaching position and was appointed Deputy Attorney General of Texas. Following that, he worked in the oil industry in Texas.