FORTITUDIiBULLETIN OF THE MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL PROGLHISTORICAL BULLETIN VOLUME XXVI FALL 1996 NUMBER

PENDLEIDN VOLUNTEERS RESCUE FLOOD-DAMAGED MARINE CORPS LANDMARK.. . HIS1ORIAN DOCUMENTS

ACTIVITIES OF MARINES IN BOSNIA.. . MARINE HISIDRY DEBUTS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. . . RECORDS

SEARCH 10 AID GULF VETERANS. . . BUMPER CROP OF SUMMER COLLEGE INTERNS LIGHTENS CENTER'S TASKS

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for public release; distribution isunlimited.

PCN 10401220100

Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

901 M Street, SoutheastWashington, D.C. 20374-5040

Telephone: (202) 433-3838, 433-3840, 433-3841

DIRECTOR EMERITUS

BGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)

DIRECTOR

Col Michael F. Monigan, USMCActing

Secretary to the Director Mrs. Patricia E. Morgan.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Col Michael F. Monigan, USMC

HISTORICAL BRANCH

Acting Head/Head, Histories Section: Mr. Benis M. Frank,Chief Historian: Dr. Jack Shulimson; Mr. Charles R. Smith;Maj Steven M. Zimmeck, USMC; Ma) James G. Antal,USMC; Mrs. Wanda E Renfrow. Oral History Unit: Mr.Richard A. Long. Reference Section Mr. DannyJ. Crawford;Mr. Roberi V. Aquilina; Mrs. Ann A. Ferrante: Miss LenaM. Kaljot; Mrs. Shelia Gramblin. Archives: Mr. Frederick

J. Graboske; Mrs. Amy C. Cohen, Persona/Papers; Mrs. JoyceC. Hudson, Sgt Eric M. Trischan, USMC, Officio/Papers.

MUSEUMS BRANCH

Acting Head/Officer-in-Charge, Air- Ground Museum,Quantico: Mr. Charles A. Wood. Operations Officer lstLtKristina L. Wenger, USMC. Museums Section: Mr. CharlesA. Wood, Chief Curator; Mr. Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas,Material History; Mr. John G. Griffiths, Ordnance; Mr.Mitch Garringer, LCpI David Nieves, Jr., USMC, Restora-tion; Mr. Michael E. Starn, Aeronautics; Mr. RonaldJ. Per-kins, Mr. Ronnie D. Alexander, Exhibits; Mrs. Nancy E King,Uniforms; Mrs. Jennifer L. Castro, Registrar, Mrs. KathrynR. Trout. Programs Assistant. Security: SSgt HureIJ. Ward,USMC; Sgt Daryl L. Clark, USMC; Sgt Pete K. Basabe.USMC; Cpl DonaldJ. Yusko, USMC; Cpl Jeffrey B. Jones.USMC; LCpI Kanaya T Easley, USMC; LCpI Wesley C. Simp-

son, USMC; LCpI Tobias T Pasky, USMC.

MARINE CORPS MUSEUM UNIT, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Exhibits: Mr. James A. Fairfax; Mr. Gordon Heim. MarineCorps Art Collection: Mr. John T. Dyer. Jr.

SUPPORT BRANCH

Head/Division Executive Officer LtCol Leon Craig, Jr..USMC. Editing andDesign Section: Mr. Robert E. Struder;Mr. William S. Hill; Mrs. Catherine A. Kerns. Library: MissEvelyn A. Englander. Administration: lstLt Mark R.

Schroeder, USMC; SSgt Myrna A. Thomas. USMC; CplTodd M. Halacy, USMC; Cpl Tracey W. Thomas. USMC.Security Unit: SSgt Treaty N. Williams, USMC.

Mr. Robert E. StruderSenior Editor/Editor; Fortitudine

FORTITUD INEMotto of the United States Marine Corps in the 1812 era.

Historical Bulletin Volume XXVI FaIl 1996 No. 2

This quarterly bulletin of the Marine Corps historical program is published for Marines, atthe rate of one copy for every nine on active duty, to provide education and training in theuses of military and Marine Corps history. Other interested readers may purchase single co-pies or four-issue subscriptions from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office. The appropriate order form appears in this issue.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Memorandum from the Chief Historian: Tokyo OdysseyBenis M. Frank 3

Readers Always Write: Profiled Marine Compiled the Corps' 'Little Red Book' 9Marine History Now Available World Wide, on the Web

Danny]. Crawford 10

Archives Sending Cuban Missile Crisis Papers to StorageYashica Best and Frederick]. Graboske 11

Awards of Doctoral and Master's Degree Fellowships at Center AnnouncedCharles R. Smith 11

Pendleton Salvages Historic Marine Chapel from FloodCame Maffei 12

Acquisitions: Museum Gets Oscar Given to Marine FilmmakerJennifer L. Gooding 13

Historical Efforts of Marines in Bosnia Aided by DivisionCol Dennis P Mroczkowski, USMCR 14

Historical Quiz: The Navy CrossMidn 2/c Richard M. Rusnok, Jr 16

Records Searched for Origins of Gulf SXlir Veterans' IllsMa) Ray Celeste, Jr., USMC 17

Two New Titles Swell World War II Pamphlets SeriesCharles R. Smith 18

Cochrane Papers Reveal Long and Colorful Naval CareerAmy Cantin Cohen 19

New Books: New Publications a Bonanza for Military History ReadersJena Beth Antal 20

Answers to the Historical Quiz: The Navy CrossMidn 2/c Richard M. Rusnok, Jr 21

Mentioned in Passing: John Erskine, Linguist and Longtime Center VolunteerBenis M. Frank 22

Number of Marine-Related Papers Presented at Historical ConferenceBenis M. Frank 22

Marine Corps Chronology: January-June 1948Robert V Aquilina 23

Thriving College Intern Program Boosts Center's GoalsCharles R. Smith 24

ABOUT THE COVER

The chapel which is a part of the Ranch House complex at Camp Pendleton, California,is a true Marine Corps landmark, the scene of countless weddings, baptisms, and funeralsof both renowned and lesser-known Marines, InJune 1993 it was struck by a rampaging floodwhich took out one of its adobe walls, scattered its pews and other furnishings over a widearea, and buried its stained glass in inches of muck. Because of the interest and activismof a group of Pendleton volunteers, the chapel today appears once again as it did in Marineartist John DeGrasse's sketch, done in 1973, on the cover. Camp Pendleton writer CarrieMaffei describes the chapel restoration work beginning on page 12.

Fortitudine is produced in the Editing and Design Section of the History and Museums Division. Thetext for Fortitudine is set in 10-point and 8-point Garamond typeface. Headlines are in 18-point or24-point Garamond. The bulletin is printed on 70-pound, matte-coated paper by offset lithography.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Vshington, D.C. 20402.

2 Fortit'tidine, Fall 1996

HISTORYAND MUSEUMSDIVISION

Tokyo Odyssey

F OR A PERIOD NOW, the U.S. ArmyCenter of Military History (CMH) and

the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force(JGSDF) Command and Staff Collegehave been holding a series of what theyjointly call "Military History Exercises"(MHX). The sites for these exercises havebeen in both the United States and Japan.This year, 15-22 February, LtGen HiromuFujiwara, JGSDF, commandant of theStaff College, and his assistant, MajGenKeiichi Ohnishi, hosted the activity atCamp Meguro in Tokyo, the site of theCommand and Staff College Head-quarters.

This year's topic was the Battle ofOkinawa. Since this had been an Ameri-can joint services operation involvingArmy, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army AirCorps forces, BGen John W. Mountcastle,USA, the Chief of Army History, invitedthe heads of the other Service historicaloffices to send one of their historians tothe exercise to present a paper concerningthe role of that service in the campaign.

Then-Director of Marine Corps Histo-ry and Museums, BGen Edwin H. Sim-mons, selected me inasmuch as I hadcoauthored with my predecessor as ChiefHistorian, Henry I. Shaw,Jr., the fifth and

final volume of our red-backed, officialWorld War II historical series—this onedealing with Okinawa, the end of the war,and the occupations of Japan and NorthChina. In addition, I had written twoother books dealing primarily with therole of the Marine Corps in the Okinawaoperation.

G EN MOUNICASTLE LED an American

delegation consisting of Dr. John T.

Greenwood, chief of the CMH Field Pro-grams and Histoncal Services Division; Dr.Gary J. Bjorge of the Command andGeneral Staff College, Fort Leavenworth,Kansas; LtCol Conrad C. Crane of the U.S.Military Academy's History Department;Dr. Donald Laird, U.S. Army, Pacific, com-mand historian; Dr. Peter Dulniawka, as-signed to the 9th Theater Army AreaCommand, U.S. Army, Japan; William T.Y'Blood, Air Force History Support Office;and Dr. EdwardJ. Marolda, senior histori-an of the Naval Historical Center. Four in-terpreters were present: Ms. YoshimiAllard, Defense Language Institute; CaptGeorge Roszko, USA, 9th Army ReserveCommand; LtCol Michael David, USAR;and LtCol Michael Beale, USA, who is theFort Leavenworth liaison officer to the StaffCollege. I represented the Marine Corps.

The Japanese participants were mem-bers of the Ground SDF, plus a navalofficer from the Maritime SDF and an avi-ator of the Air SDF. In addition, presentwere representatives from the National In-stitute for Defense Studies (NIDS), theNational Defense Academy, and the JointStaff College. One of the NIDS represen-tatives who presented a paper was Dr.Hisashi Takahashi, chief of the 1st MilitaryHistory Office of NIDS, who had been a

Me moran dii m from the Chief Historian

Benis M. Frank

The sign above the entrance to the Command and Staff College at Camp Meguroin Tokyo. and an elegant floral arrangement. welcomed participants to the 1996 Mdi-taly History Exercise. Topic of the exercise was the 1945 battle for the island of Okinawa.

At Tokyds Narita Airport, the Washington contingent. from left. Frank. Marolda, andMountcastle, meet u with Crane of West Point, and an SDF guide and interprete,:

Foriziiid,ne, Fall 1996

visiting professor at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego, for several years. Inaddition, there were four other civilianparticipants, three of whom were retiredJGSDF colonels, and the fourth a retiredAir SDF major general.

After a 14-hour, non-stop plane tripfrom Chicago to Narita airport, we weremet by LtCol Beale and several JGSDFofficers who served as escorts and who tookus to the New Sanno, which is a U.S.Army-built and U.S. Navy-run hotel. Sincewe were now 14 hours and a day ahead ofthe East Coast of the U.S., our body clocksneeded readjustment. (Actually, it was

much worse returning from Japan toWashington.)

T HE CORDIAL MEETING with the twoJapanese majors who accompanied

LtCoI Beale was a harbinger of the courtesyand hospitality we were to receive from ourJapanese hosts for the next eight days. Ihadn't been in Japan since 1953, when Ispent a week in Kyoto on R-and-R leavefrom Korea. On this 1996 trip over, I

thought of the Smithsonian Institution'sEnola Gay exhibit and the attendant hass-le, and wondered how it had played inJapan and whether it was to affect this con-

ference in any way. I need not have beenconcerned. Our association with theJapanese officers and civilians at the MI-liXwas objective and straightforward, as youshall see when I discuss the tone of papersthat the SDF personnel presented. As theoldest member of the American party andthe only veteran of the battle for Okina-wa participating in the conference, itseemed to me that I was given special at-tention which was almost embarrassing.One other thing: it was planned that af-ter the papers were presented, the MHXwould move on to Okinawa itself for a tourof the battlefield sites. In considering theanti-American demonstrations breakingout on the island, our hosts thought thispart of the exercise ill-advised, and so wedidn't visit Okinawa.

The MI-TX began on the morning of 14February, when our escorts arrived withvans to transport us to the Command andStaff College. Here we met our hosts, allof whom bowed when introduced, a

gesture we all soon learned to emulate. Wealso soon discovered how well organizedand managed the conference was to be. Itwas more than having an establishedschedule for the presentations, it also washaving positions already indicated for thegroup photograph, which was one of thefirst items of business.

Next, we entered the conference roomwhere we took our assigned seats, theJapanese delegation facing the American

4 Fortitudine, Fall 1996

Before the exercise began, BGen John U'< Mountcastle, Chief of Army History, left,paida courtesy cal/on LtGen Hiromu Fujiwara, commandant of the Japanese GroundSelf Defense Force Command and Staff College. Cordiality was a constant for the week.

The first order of business of the first day was to photographthe participants in the Military Histoiy Exercise. All soon learnedhow well organized and managed the conference was to be; po-sitions were already indicated for the group photograph. The

formatfor the conference was that two presentations were giveneach day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, oneby an American presenterand one by aJapanese presenter TheJapanese participants courteously gave their talks in English.

one, and each member stood, was in-troduced, and, again, bowed. The formatfor the conference was that two presenta-tions were given each day, one in themorning and one in the afternoon, oneby an American presenter and the otherby ajapanese. Our papers had been trans-lated into Japanese long before the con-ference and included in a conferencenotebook. The Japanese presentationswere likewise translated into English andput into the notebook. Although ourJapanese colleagues courteously gave theirpresentations in English, it was helpful toread the texts along with the talks. Follow-ing each presentation there was a periodgiven over for questions and discussions,which were generally lively and wide-ranging.

A s I STATED EARLIER, the papers given

by the Japanese were objective andfrank. This became obvious as we heard,on 15 February, the first presentation byDr. Takahashi, who spoke on "Despair ora Streak of Hope—The Situation of WarGuidance in the Spring of 1945:' Dr. Taka-hashi related the confusion of the ImperialGeneral Headquarters (IGHQ) staff inTokyo, discussed army- navy rivalries.and — following the fall of Saipan — the fallof the Tojo government. He also addressedthe IGHQ's lack of firm intelligence of thesituation in the Pacific and its inability toformulate realistically viable strategic plansto offset the Allied advance towards Tokyo.The other papers delivered by the Japanesedelegation were as realistic and objectiveas this first one.

LtCol Crane, who holds a Ph.D. degreefrom Stanford University, spoke that after-

noon on "Echoes of Okinawa —The Impactof the Okinawa Campaign on U.S. Esca-lation of the War Against Japan' He con-cluded that the battle for Okinawa was adefining moment for American strategy inthe Pacific. because American lossescaused by a fanatic Japanese grounddefense and kamikaze attacks strength-ened U.S. resolve to achieve unconditionalsurrender. As a result, after Okinawa,"there were no more restraints to limit theescalation to total war against the enemyhomeland."

On the first evening of the conference,Gen Fujiwara hosted his American guestsat a reception. Toasts were exchanged andwhat may be a peculiarly Japanese custombecame apparent. One did not fill one'sown glass; one of theJapanese officers withwhom you were talking would do it for you

and you would do the same for him. Theresult was to keep the glasses hospitablyfull at all times!

Dr. Marolda of the Naval HistoricalCenter began the presentations on the se-cond day with his paper, "Weathering theDivine Wind: The U.S. Navy and theOkinawa Campaign." He concluded that"while the battle for Okinawa was gener-ally an example of cooperation among theAmerican armed services, the U.S. Navyand the U.S. Army Air Forces disagreedabout the enemy's kamikaze threat.Despite the Navy's entreaties, AAF lead-ers delayed concentrating their bombingattacks against the Japanese fields fromwhich the kamikazes sortied against VAdmRaymond A. Spruance's Fifth Fleet."Marolda pointed out that once MajGenCurtis L. LeMay, commander of the XXIBomber Command, recognized the seri-ousness of the threat against the fleet, heordered his aircraft to hit kamikaze bases.Dr. Marolda also revealed the losses sus-tained by the fleet: 34 ships sunk; 368others damaged; and more than 5,000sailors killed.

T HAT AFTERNOON'S presentation,"What Did the Imperial General

Headquarters Try to Achieve Through theTen-Go Air Operation," was given by ColFujio ma. I later learned that Col ma'sfather had been killed in Philippinesfighting. Incidentally, before the presen-tations began, Col Ina told me that he hadread my paper and agreed with what I hadwritten in my last paragraph: "In reliving

Fe/i/u dine. Fall 1O)6

At the Japanese reception on the first night are, from left. BGen Mountcastle, LtColCrane, Di: Marolda, Mr Frank, and Dr Greenwood Traditional customs were observed

One of the conference's four interpreters. Ms. shimz Allard of the Defense LanguageInjtitute. looks on amused as Frank attempts to navigate a pair of lunchtime chopsticks,

On Saturday's escorted tour the exhibitsseen at the Edo-Tokyo Museum were spec-tacular This Ic one of the figures iv thesection devoted to the kabuki theater

World War II during the recent 50th an-niversary commemorations of the war, Iam pleased not only for myself and our Al-lied forces that we didn't have to invadethe Home Islands, but also for the peo-ple of Japan who would have sufferedmightily had the Emperor not decidedthat the war should end."

Col ma's paper was incisive and interest-ing to me because he presented someJapanese concepts and conclusions ofwhich I was not aware previously. Essen-tially, the Ten-Go operation was plannedto conduct decisive air battles against Al-lied invasion forces, mainly around the"South-West Islands," located in the for-ward area ofJapan. This was to be an ef-fort to defend Japan proper after thefailure earlier of the Sho-Go set of opera-tions. The success of Ten-Go would de-pend upon the close cooperation of theJapanese Army and Navy. Since this hadnot been accomplished in the war so far,there was only the hope of it beingachieved at this time, when the fate of theJapanese Home Islands was at risk. Ten-Go was launched on 18 March 1945, withonly some small degree of success, i.e., the

effect of the kamikaze raids on the U.S.fleet at Okinawa. Col ma conduded: "TheTen-Go operation was the last battle be-tween the two nations. It brought an endto the war before a final decisive battle oc-curred on Japan Proper, which allowed thepeople of both nations not to bear deepgrudges later. Furthermore, the end of theTen-Go Operation became the startingpoint for establishing today's close Japan-U.S. relations." Col ma's was the lastpresentation of that week.

On Saturday, our hosts took us on a tourof two city attractions—the Edo-TokyoMuseum and the Yasakuni War Shrine.The museum is concerned with the histo-ry of Tokyo, or Edo, as it was known until1868. The museum was modern in con-cept and exhibitry and well displayed whatEdo must have been like. In one area ofthe Edo section a typical street, withhouses and shops on both sides, waspresented, and in the shops contemporaryitems were shown. By the 18th century,Edo had become one of the largest urbanareas in the world. With the end of the250-year reign of the Tokugawa bakufureign, Edo was renamed Tokyo ("EasternCapital"). Throughout the Tokyo sectionin the museum, you can see how the cityemerged as one of the most heavily popu-lated worldwide. One section of the Tokyoexhibit is given over to a display entitled"War and Reconstruction," which gave mesome slight idea of howJapanese citizensfared in the war. According to the muse-um guidebook, "Museum exhibits ques-

tion the meaning of the war from variousangles And so they do.

F OR LUNCH, OUR HOSTS took us to atraditional sumo restaurant named

Tomoegata, after the retired sumo wres-tler who founded it. We were seated oncushions around a low table, in the mid-dle of which was a large electrically heat-ed stewpot used to cook the traditionalmeal of the wrestlers. This is chanko nabe,a stew of salmon and other fish, fried tofu,mushrooms, and other vegetables whichI couldn't identify. The solid items werepicked out of the stew with chopsticks, andthe remaining liquid poured into smallbowls. Noodles were placed into the re-maining stew to finish up. It was al-together exotic and delicious. All of thiswas accompanied by sake, beer Uapanese,of course), and soda.

After this repast, we were taken to theYasukunijinja, or Shrine, which was origi-nally known as the Tokyo Shokonsha. Theword Shokonsha means the shrine or placeto which the "divine spirits of those whohave made the great sacrifice are invited."Essentially, this is a shrine to all of theJapanese war dead of all ages. As I notedin a diary I was keeping of my Tokyo trip,the shrine is very impressive. After enter-ing through the first Toni gate leading tothe shrine we arrived at what is called "theHand-Washing Place," where, according totradition, we washed our hands andwashed out our mouths. There were many

6 Fortitudine, Fall 1996

Everything was white and extremely quiet at the Yasukuni Shrine. White doves ho-vered and gathered as they were fed birdseed from a coin-operated machine nearby.

white doves there which it seemed to mecould be spirits of those long past. It hadsnowed in Tokyo since morning, and theday was cloudy and overcast. All thesethings contributed to give a strange at-mosphere to the place.

Close by to the shrine is a museum.Yushukan, which is dedicated to thememories of the war dead and contains"things memorial to the wars that this na-tion has fought, and some weapons fromold and new ages." We were given a guid-ed tour of the shrine museum by its head,MajGen Daitche Shirosuke. This place wasestablished in 1882, and as Japan wentthrough the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I, the facil-ity was enlarged by continual remodelingand construction of an annex. The muse-um was quite cold when we visited it.

While it holds a large collection of earlyJapanese weapons and armor, it alsohouses a number of exhibits dedicated toJapan's World War II heroes and events,with pictures, uniforms, medals, samuraiswords, and other artifacts. In the large ex-hibit hail there was an impressive dioramadepicting kamikaze attacks on the U.S.fleet at Okinawa, a kaiten (a human torpe-do such as those found at Okinawa), aswell as a World War II tank and a "Judy,"a carrier-based, single-engined Aichiborn ber.

T HE MONDAY MORNING session of theconference began with Mr. Y'B!ood's

paper on "Air Support on Okinawa' Y'B-lood related the story of the operations of

the Tactical Air Force, Tenth Army, and itsAir Defense Command, both comprisedprimarily of Marine Corps units and head-ed by Marine general officers. He alsospoke of the maturing of close air supporton Okinawa and the control of that sup-port by the Marine landing force air sup-port control units. He concluded that closeair support was successful at Okinawa, butthat there were some ripples which stillneeded to be ironed out.

In the afternoon, LtCol Masahiro Kawaispoke about his considerable research intoa relatively unknown Japanese unit whenhe discussed "The Operations of theSuicide-Boat Regiment in Okinawa' LtColKawai pointed out that while thekamikaze (Divine Wind) special air corpscreated within both the Japanese army andnavy in late 1944, and the Kaiten (Her-culean Task) suicide torpedo corps of thenavy were well known, another special unitwas not so well publicized. This was thearmy's suicide-boat regiments, which wereorganized and operated completely as ahidden force. They were neither publi-cized nor have they ever been researchedto any great degree since the end of thewar. One good reason, perhaps, is thatthey never achieved any great success,while their casualties were staggering.LtCol Kawai stated that "out of the total1,800-member first-time Army 'special'shipping officer cadet corps, as many as1,185 were killed in action." These specialcadets were recruited in December 1943from among the third- and fourth-gradestudents of the five-year Japanese high

school system, and were no more than 16or 17 years old. LtCol Kawai pointed outthat "in no other part of modernJapanesemilitary history would one come across aninstance where the minors constituted thevast majority of any operating group andso many of them were lost in battle." Heindicated that he is now in the process offinishing a detailed account of the suicide-boat regiments, the background leadingto their creation, and the actions of each.In his paper, he dealt with the role of theregiments at Okinawa.

Professor Yoshio Sugino-o of the Na-tional Defense Academy addressed thefate of Okinawan civilians in his paper,"Evacuation of Inhabitants on Okinawa."The sad fact of the matter is that wellabove 100,000 Okinawans died during thebattle for their island. Some of this num-ber were just caught in the middle of thefighting and could not get out of the way.Some civilians were killed as they were be-ing evacuated by the Japanese to thesouthern part of the island. And yet otherswere sealed in caves by Americans whothought that they were enemy forces. Dr.Sugino-o discussed Japanese plans for pro-tecting Okinawans before the Americanlanding, their evacuation after the land-ing, and finally the several causes leadingto civilian casualties.

T UESDAY AFTERNOON, Dr. Greenwood

read a paper, "The Battle of Okina-wa: Various Aspects of Ground Opera-

/1/ Wednesday lunch, LtCol Takeichi. withhlc ca/ligrapherc brush, some paper andzik. drew a beautiful example of hlc art.

Fortitudine, Fall 1996

MajGen Daitche Shirosuke. center right, gave the group a guided tour of his muse-um, located on the shrine grounds. Among exhibits were an ohka, a human-pilotedsuicide bomb, anda cased diorama of a kamikaze raid on the US. fleet at Okinawa.

tions," written by Dr. Arnold G. Fisch,Jr.,also of the Army Center of Military His-tory. Essentially, Dr. Fisch's paper providesa broad picture of the ground battle, andthe grinding efforts on the part of bothsides to succeed. He concluded: "In manyways, the battle for Okinawa came downto a struggle in which the basic tacticalunit on each side was a pillbox supportedby infantry." In the case of the Americans,it was an infantry-supported, fairly vulner-able, tank attack, while the Japanese used"almost invulnerable but immobile pill-boxes, the fortified caves." He also validlynoted that "For the average weary soldieror Marine, the battle of Okinawa, togetherwith the earlier bloody struggle for IwoJima, ominously showed how difficult thefinal conquest of the Japanese home is-lands might be."

My presentation on the Marine role inthe battle for Okinawa was given themorning of 21 February, whith happenedto be my 71st birthday. As I was about tobegin my paper, I was pleasantly surprisedby Col Hiroshi Shiraishi, chief of the Mili-tary History Branch of the Staff College,carrying in a birthday cake, with candles,and a tiny Marine Corps flag in the mid-dle. What a nice and generous touch! I be-gan my talk by thanking our hosts for theirgenerosity and graciousness, and then Itold them that some 51 years ago onOkinawa, never in my wildest imaginationcould I have ever thought that somedayI would be giving a lecture about the bat-tle to a group ofJapanese officers in Tokyo.I also told them that this trip is undoubt-edly the height of my professional career.

And then I delivered my paper. Afterdiscussing the Marine Corps order of bat-tle for Okinawa, and the major aspects ofthe fighting vis-a-vis Marine units, I con-cluded by saying: "I was a member of the1st Marine Division who fought on Okina-wa. I had also participated in the battlefor Peleliu, another fierce and costly fight"and that I was mightily relieved when Iheard that the Empire of Japan had sur-rendered to the United Nations. "All thatI could say was that I was mightily relieved,for I had been in the midst of two fiercelyfought campaigns and emerged withouta scratch. I was not so certain of this be-ing the case, or of my own immortality,had I been part of the forces which wereto invade Japan." I am positive that mostof the troops in the Pacific or destined tobe deployed to the Pacific for Operation

Olympic had the same mindset.

A T THE END OF my presentation, Dr.(formerly Col) Hara, director of the

National Institute for Defense StudiesLibrary, corrected an error that has exist-ed for more than 50 years. He pointed outthat Hagushi, the little town at the mouthof the Bishi Gawa, the river on Okinawawhich served as the border between IIIAmphibious Corps and XXIV Corps inthe landing, was really named Togushi.Apparently someone at the Joint Intelli-gence Center, Pacific Ocean Areas, (JIC-POA), had mistranslated ajapanse mapof the island, and so historians had beenmisnaming the town and the beaches overwhich the Tenth Army landed in 1945.

I was taken to a Chinese restaurant forlunch that afternoon by Professor Sugino-oand LtCols Ginjiro Takeichi and KazumiKuzehara, who had trained on Okinawawith Marines there. When we finishedlunch, my hosts presented me with sever-al gifts, and LtCol Takeichi, whom Ilearned was a member of the CalligraphersGuild in Tokyo, whipped out some paper,a brush, and ink, and designed a beauti-ful piece of calligraphic art for me. Themain message reads from left to right,"Honor," and from right to left, "Glory."It is inscribed down the left, "To my bigbrother Ben Frank," and he signed hisname with a flourish. What does one sayto such generosity, except "thank you."

That afternoon we heard two emotion-

ally moving presentations by two Japaneseveterans of Okinawa. The first was 76-year-old LtCol Tadashi Kojo, who was a captainand commander of the 1st Battalion, 22dRegiment, in the battle around Shun. Hewas captured and returned to Japan inMarch 1946. From 1947 to 1954, he wasan interpreter/translator for U.S. Forces,Japan. In 1954, he enrolled in theJGSDFand was commissioned a captain. He re-tired in his present rank in 1970. The se-cond veteran was lstLt YoshinakaYamamoto, who lost his left arm in theOkinawa fighting. His arm was so badlyinjured that he removed it with his ownsword, and buried both arm and sword.He owes his life to an Okinawan womanwho carried him on her back to an aid sta-tion in the Japanese rear. One could seethat our Japanese colleagues were verymoved by what both of these survivors hadto say, and so, too, was the American dele-gation.

A FTER ThE TWO Japanese veterans ofOkinawa spoke, as part of the clos-

ing of the conference, the Americans andthe Japanese exchanged "presentos." Eachof the U.S. representatives gave our col-leagues something symbolic of their in-dividual Services. Through the courtesy ofthe Marine Corps Historical Foundation,I gave each of the Japanese a Marine Corpstie tac.

As we returned to our hotel to preparefor the evening reception, at the invitation

8 Foruitudine, Fall 1996

The only three veterans of the Battle of Okinawa meet at the conference. Mr Frankshakes the hand of IstLt Yamamoto as former battalion commander LtCol Koyo lookson. During the battle, Lt Yamamoto removed his own badly damaged arm with a sword

of Dr. Hara, we visited his library/archivesand were given a tour. We viewed someold and interesting documents which sur-vived the bombing of Tokyo.

The final evening of our stay in Japanwas marked by a reception the Americandelegation gave for our Japanese hosts.Both LtCol Kojo and Lt Yamamoto, andthe latter's grandaughter, were present.Almost every member of the Japanesedelegation wore the Marine Corps tie tac.It was with a warm feeling of collegialitythat we toasted each other and looked for-ward to the next MHX, which is to be heldin February 1997 in Washington, with the

battle for Saipan the theme.Some odd thoughts about Japan: First

of all, it is a given that all Japanese chil-dren are cute, and they are. Second, itseems as though everyone in Tokyo has acellular phone and is calling everyone elsein the street with it. The Tokyo traffic ishorrific, but it is also that way in Washing-ton, New York, and also Paris and London,I hear. I don't think that I would ever wantto drive in Tokyo. The roads for the mostpart are very narrow, alleys most of them.Many Tokyo citizens drive as though theywere get-away men. I noted that therewere many new and expensive cars on the

roads and I was told that it can and doescost up to $500 a month for a parkingspace, because space is so limited in Tokyo.This is obvious when you see the many ex-traordinarily narrow buildings and apart-ment houses in the city.

The trip back to Washington, with astopover in San Francisco to change planes,was anticlimatic. It was difficult to sort outmy thoughts on the homeward-boundjourney. One could only hope that theconference and the meeting of new col-leagues and friends was as meaningful forthe Japanese as it was for me. L111775L1

Readers Always Write

Profiled Marine Compiled the Corps' 'Little Red Book'MAY HAVE HELPED FINANCESMs. Amy Cantin has written an interest-ing biographical profile of Col LutherBrown in her "Seniors Monitored YoungMarine's Career, Papers Show" in theWinter-Spring 1996 Fortitudine.

However, she has missed what was un-doubtedly Col Brown's most far-reachingaccomplishment. He was the compiler ofThe Marine's Handbook, the mainstay ofenlisted instruction from the mid-1930sthrough World War II. Generations of Ma-rines learned the fundamentals of theirtrade from his "Red Book:' as it was called.Written when he was a first lieutenant andprobably at least in part motivated by hisperennial financial problems, The Ma-rine's Handbook was first published by theU.S. Naval Institute in 1934. Sale wasauthorized in all Marine Corps Post Ex-changes (and purchase required of allrecruits). It was in catechism format, thatis, "The Marine's Handbook is a completeset of questions and answers on all sub-jects of training for Marine Corps enlist-ed personnel, as enumerated underMarine Corps Order Number 41."

The book had 25 chapters beginningwith "The Service Rifle" and goingthrough to "Combat Principles (Compa-ny)." The book went through at least seveneditions and revisions, expanding to 30chapters in 1940, by which time Brown wasa major.

My memory fades a bit at this point,but I believe all this knowledge was avail-able for a dollar.

After World War II Brown's "Red Book"

metamorphosed into the Guidebook forMarines published by the Leatherneck As-sociation.

Careful Reader

EDITOR 'S NOTE: "Careful Reader," a re-tired Marine with a seemingly encycloped-ic knowledge of the Corps' customs andtraditions, and who also values his priva-cy, has been firing off letters to Fortitu-dine from time to time for more than aquarter of a century.

SPLENDID ACQUISITIONI read of the donation of "Cates' Vented,Dented WWI Helmet" to the MarineCorps Museum (Fortitudine, Winter-Spring 1996). What an acquisition! I hadread about this occurence to Lt. Cates inother publications. I eagerly look forwardto your publishing the history of Marinesin World War I.

Robert A. TunisGlobe, Arizona

TO THE DIRECTOR EMERITUSI recently read, with interest and great ad-miration, your "Memorandum" on "WhyYou Should Study Military History" (For-titudine, Fall 1995). It immediately calledto mind a brief essay by PresidentJohn F.Kennedy, published after his death in theFebruary 1964 issue of "AmericanHeritage." Fortunately, I am a pack-ratwith reading material, and I was able tolocated this 32-year-old volume and makethe encosed copy for you. I think yourpiece is as eloquent in its more specialized

ized analysis as President Kennedy's onhistory generally.

Frank S. Craig, Jr.Baton Rouge, Louisiana

EDITOR'S NOTE: President Kennedy be-gan his American Heritage article with thisparagraph: 'There is little that is more im-portant for an American citizen to knowthan the history and traditions of his coun-try. Without such knowledge, he standsuncertain and defenseless before theworld, knowing neither where he hascome from nor where he is going. Withsuch knowledge, he no longer alone butdraws a strength far greater than his ownfrom the cumulative experience of the pastand a cumulative vision of the future."

Just received my Fortitudine Fall 1995 is-sue and as usual it is great. Thank you andthe Corps in Albany, Georgia, for send-ing it. The saddest thing I learned in this

issue . . . was the fact that we are los-ing you to retirement . . . . You have morethan earned your retirement but you arestill going to be missed by all those whohave come to enjoy the efforts you haveput into your duties and especially yourwork in making Fortitudine such an ex-cellent source of information . . . . Con-gratulations on a career serving the UnitedStates for an amazing 55 years. You shouldbe very proud. We are proud of you. I

hope you will continue to keep in touchwith Fortitudine and hopefully continueto contribute articles and share your think-ing with us.

Clarence W. MartinBethany, Connecticut

Fortitudine, Fall 1996 9

Marine History Now Available World-Wide, on the Webby Danny J. Crawford

Head Reference Section

E ARLIER THIS YEAR, Headquarters, U.S.Marine Corps, inaugurated "Marine-

Link," the Corps' own home page on theWorld Wide Web. MarineLink providesaccess to a wide range of informationabout today's Marine Corps, includingnews releases from around the Corps, afact file on current weapons and equip-ment, information on recruiting, andschedules of upcoming public eventsfeaturing Marine bands and ceremonialunits.

Of particular interest to the history-minded is an ever-expanding body of his-tories, articles, fact sheets, and listingscovering a wide range of topics, which areaccessible by "clicking on" the history sec-tion of MarineLink. Among the morepopular items found on MarineLink arelists of Marine Corps commandants, assis-tant commandants, and sergeants major;fact sheets on World War II, the KoreanWar, and Desert Storm; information onMarine Corps customs and traditions; andvarious lists of Marine Corps casualties andstrengths spanning the Corps' history.

Prior to the establishment of Marine-Link, a U.S. Marine Corps home page, be-gun in 1995, was housed and maintainedby the Administration and ResourceManagement Division at the Navy Annexin Arlington, Virginia. Updates to thehome page were difficult at that time, assuch work had to be done manually, aslow, laborious process. Beginning in Sep-tember 1995, an Internet Working Groupwas convened at HQMC to look for waysto enhance the dissemination of MarineCorps information and to formalize theprocess for selecting appropriate materi-als for the Internet.

J J NDER THE DIRECTION of MajLi Elizabeth Kerstens of the Public Af-fairs Division, the group made progresstoward the goal of direct, easily updated,Marine Corps participation in Defense-Link, the Department of Defense's officialWorld Wide Web information service.DefenseLink is accessible via web browsers,24 hours a day, seven days a week, at:

http://www.dtic.dla.mil/defenselink!

In December 1995 a Memorandum ofUnderstanding was signed between Head-

quarters Marine Corps and the DefenseTechnical Information Center (DTIC) onhousing the Marine Corps' home page atDTIC at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. By agree-ing to house a Lotus Notes-equippedserver (provided by the Marine Corps) ontheir premises, this agreement with DTICwould allow the Marine Corps to automat-ically update home page items throughLotus Notes.

By late January of this year, MarineLinkwas up and running and by the earlyreviews was a huge success. The followingare a sampling of some of the commentsreceived during MarineLink's first fewmonths of operation:

"Nice to see the Corps online and intothe 21st century. Keep up the good work."

"A most excellent page!"Visit MarineLink at:

http://www.usmc.mil!New information is being added daily,sometimes hourly. Among the items to beadded to the Marine Corps history sectionof MarineLink in the coming weeks are anupdated list of Marine deployments sinceWorld War II, a brief history of tanks inthe Marine Corps, and a number of arti-cles dealing with Marine operations inVietnam. You can also download the "TheMarines' Hymn," as played by the Marineband. L1111775L1J

10 Fortitudine, Fall 1996

From the ha/Is of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, We fight our country'sbattles in the air, on land and sea. First to fight for right and freedom, and to keepour honor clean; We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.-The Marines Hymn-

Welcome to MarineLINK, the officialWWW information service of the United States

Marine Corps.

i: News about the Marine Corps.Opportunities: Recruiting information and other opportunities within the MarineCorps.Public Events: Marine Corps events open to the public, including Marine Bandperformances.Fact File: Fact sheets on Marine Corps weapons and equipment systems.

Archives Sending Cuban Missile Crisis Papers to Storage

M ARINE CORPS records held in theArchives Section related to the

Cuban Missile Crisis are now being sentto storage, as new ones dealing with Carib-bean refugee issues are arriving.

The missile crisis started when intelli-gence reports reached Washington in Sep-tember 1962 confirming that the SovietUnion was building missile sites in Cuba.The Kennedy Administration determinedthat the presence of Soviet missiles was anintolerable threat to the security of thiscountry; the President demanded theirimmediate removal. The launch sites werenot yet operational, so they did not yetpose an actual threat, but the intelligenceexperts estimated that the sites wouldreach operational status by the end of theyear. Kennedy ordered a naval blockadeof Cuba to prevent the delivery of anymore missiles or of materials for the launchsites. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchevbacked down. Soviet freighters displayedthe missiles on their decks as they were re-moved from the island; this process wascomplete by December. The crisis proba-bly was the closest the two great powersever came to nuclear war.

These were very dramatic weeks. TheUnited Nations Security Council debatedthe issue and the debates were televisednationally. Pictures of the missile sites wereshown to the world. An "invasion force"

by Yashica Best, Center Internand Frederick j Graboske, Head, Archives Section

was assembled rapidly in south Florida. SixLatin American nations sent naval vesselsto join in the blockade of Cuba. Khrush-chev agreed to remove the missiles in ex-change for Kennedy's promise not toinvade Cuba and for the removal ofAmerican missiles from Turkey by 1964.

T HE MARINE CORPS played a role inpreparations for the "invasion" of

Cuba. The Kennedy Assassination RecordsReview Board has requested that the mili-tary services turn over to them the recordsof this aborted operation. In order to ac-commodate this request we have photo-copied all of our records, a total of 2 cu-bic feet. A set of copies of the records willgo to the Board and will become a partof its permanent records in the NationalArchives. The originals will be retired tostorage at the Archives' Records Center atSuitland, Maryland, where they will re-main a part of the permanent record ofthe Marine Corps.

More than 30 years later Cuba again be-came important to Marme commanders.In 1994 thousands of refugees fleeing Cas-tro's Cuba in flimsy craft were brought tothe U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo,Cuba. Additional thousands of Haitiansfleeing their poverty-stricken nation alsowere brought there. Marines stationed inGuantanamo were tasked with the

problems of sheltering and feeding theseindividuals as part of Operation Sea Sig-nal 94. One cubic foot of records of thesehumanitarian efforts were collected for usby a former member of the HistoricalCenter staff, Capt David A. Dawson.

The Sea Signal 94 records provide an ex-cellent example of cooperation between acommand historian and the History andMuseums Division. When a commandhistorian such as Capt Dawson takes thetime to gather and preserve the minuterecords of operations, the records aremaintained as part of the history of theMarine Corps. Marines often are deployedto provide assistance in the wake of naturaldisasters or to extract American citizensfrom zones of armed conflict. Seldom aredetailed accounts of these activities for-warded to us. If units are to receive properhistorical credit for the work performed,the commanding officer and commandhistorian must ensure that complete andaccurate documentation is created andsent to the History and Museums Division.

A shipment of hundreds or thousandsof pages to us via the chain of commandshould be preceded by an e-mail or letternotifying us of the shipment, and recordsshould be shipped separately from thecommand chronology, which must be for-warded via the chain of command.

Eli 775L11

Awards of Doctoral and Master's Degree Fellowships at Center Announced

T HE MARINE CORPS HistoricalFoundation's 1996 General Lemuel

C. Shepherd, Jr., Dissertation Fellowshipwas awarded to Thiguo Yang, a doctoralcandidate in history at the University ofMaryland, College Park. A native of Tsing-tao, China, Mr. Yang completed graduatestudies at Beijing University before com-ing to the United States. His dissertationwill examine the influence on the ChineseCivil War of the Marine Corps' occupationof Tsingtao from 1945 to 1949, first led bythen-MajGen Shepherd as commander ofthe 6th Marine Division.

A second, partial Dissertation Fellow-ship was awarded to John Cashman of

by Charles R. SmithSecretary, Marine Corps Historical Foundation

Boston College for his study of a little-known episode in Marine Corps history,the 19th-century interventions at NavassaIsland. This small, American-owned is-land, located midway between Jamaicaand Haiti in the Windward Passage, wasmined for phosphate after the Civil Warusing, and often abusing, contract laborersfrom the United States. Riots and ir-regularities prompted several visits by Ma-rine landing parties, with the most seriousoccurring in October 1889, as a result ofa breakdown in order and healthstandards.

Maj Timothy J. Jackson, USMCR,received the Lieutenant Colonel Lily H.

Gridley Master's Thesis Fellowship for hisproposed thesis: "Special Trust and Con-fidence: Command Relationships inNorthern I Corps Sector of the Republicof Vietnam, 1967-1968." Currently servingon active duty with the II Marine Expedi-tionary Force at Camp Lejeune, Maj Jack-son is pursuing his graduate studies atWestern Carolina University at Cullowhee.A second Master's Thesis Fellowship wasawarded to Scott D. Welch of PepperdineUniversity for a thesis on Marine Corps hu-manitarian and disaster relief missions.The Marine Corps' recent involvement ina number of these missions raises the lev-el of current interest in this topic. Eli 775E1

Fortitudine, Fall 1996 11

Pendleton Salvages Historic Marine Chapel From Floodby Came MaffeiCamp Pendleton

I T WAS MORE THAN THREE years agowhen a river of water raged over a le-

vee, across the grounds, and through thewalls of the chapel of the Santa MargaritaRanch House complex on Camp Pendle-ton. The ranch house, which is home tothe I Marine Expeditionary Force com-manding general, and the bunkhouse,which serves as a museum to visitors, sus-tained minimal water damage. The chapeldid not fare so well.

"Nothing could have prepared me forwhat I saw the morning after the flood,"said Episcopal Chaplain R. Stephen Pow-ers. Pews and other furnishings and arti-cles were strewn about the chapel; someof them were carried outside and came torest several hundred yards away. Thechapel, which had been the subject ofchange throughout its long existence, hadonly recently experienced what manythought would be its final renovation.

As the articles were recovered, and acontracted survey team deemed the struc-ture salvageable, thoughts of a reconstruc-tion project for the historic chapel brewed."There wasn't money readily available to

All but one of the stained glass pane/sswept out in the Jlood were located in thethick residual mud Photo from June 1993shows the chapel missing one of its walls.

reconstruct, so we got together to keep thehopes of reconstruction alive," Ann Roth-well, chairwoman of "The Friends of theChapel," said. The non-profit organizationraised nearly $30,000 through fund-raisersand private donations. In addition, a

$100,000 grant from the Department ofDefense's Legacy Resources ManagementProgram was approved.

C OLJOHN H. ROBERFUS, USMC (Ret),former assistant chief of staff for fa-

cilities, noted that the structure was notonly an historic site, but also an activelyused chapel at the time of the flood. Oncethe State Historic Preservation Office gavethe go-ahead to begin work, the workforce, consisting of volunteers, base facili-ties personnel, and an outside consultingelement, began "to reconstruct the chapel,while salvaging as much of the originalmaterial as possible," according to the basehistorian at the time of reconstruction,Nick Magalousis.

The project sparked a wealth of interest.Volunteers with special abilities dedicat-ed their time and talents in a variety ofways—from labeling artifacts and photos

Volunteers took accurate readings of thecolor and consistency of the chapel's ado bewalls as part of the conservation process.

to replicating missing artifacts. Carpenters,painters, masons, sheet metal workers,electricians, heavy equipment operators,and other specialists worked endlessly torebuild the chapel, according to HunterNewman, project manager. Because many

12 Fortiiudine, Fall 1996

The now fully restored chapel glistens in the California sun. Organizers of a groupcalled The Friends of the Chapel raised $30,000 in donations toward the restoration.The building was constructed in 1810, making it the oldest one on Camp Pendleton.