George M. Van Sant was born November 20, 1927, in State College, Pennsylvania. He attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps in June 1945. His college education was interrupted when he deployed to North China with the 1st Marine Division just as World War II was winding down. He returned to the U.S. in 1946 and was able to graduate from St. John’s in 1948.

Two years later he was recalled by the Marines at the outset of the Korean War. Van Sant was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He served as a platoon commander and as the company’s Executive Officer during many arduous months of combat. After the war he received a letter from the men who’d served under him thanking him for his “deeds of action” and his “leadership while taking care of your men.” 

Van Sant returned from Korea in 1953 and went back to school, earning his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He stayed in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1977, retiring as a Colonel, and went on to teach philosophy at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA.

National Memorial Cemetery at Quantico

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GEORGE MONTGOMERY VAN SANT

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