FORTITUD INENEWSLETTER OF THE MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL PROGRAM

VOLUME XV SPRING 1986 NUMBER 4

ARTIST DEFIES ARCTIC COLD 1t REcoRD MARINE EXERCISE. . . MAJOR WALLER, HERO OR VILLAIN? ThEMILITARY ORDER OF THE CARABAO DECIDES. . . VETS OF THE 'GREAT WAR' DESCRIBE GRUELING MARINEEXPERIENCE. . . REFURBISHED AIR-GROUND MUSEUM REOPENS. . . FLIGHT LINES: DOUGLAS SKYTRAIN

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

PCN 10401220100

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

Spring 1986

This quarterly newsletter of the Marine Corps historical program is publishedfor the Corps and for friends of Marine Corps history in accordance with Depart-ment of the Navy Publications and Printing Regulations NAVEXOS P-35. Individualsand institutions desiring Fortitudine on a complimentary regular basis are invitedto apply to: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps(HDS-1), Washington, D.C. 20374-0580.

The Secretary of the Navy has determined that this publication is necessary inthe transaction of business required by law of the Department of the Navy. Fundsfor printing of this publication have been approved by the Navy Publications andPrinting Policy Committee.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Director's Page: WaIler at Samar 3

Acquisitions: Samar Marine's Rare Linen Coat Given to Museum 6

Three Sources for Marine Pictures 9

Readers A/ways Ute: How Biggest Ship Was Sunk;O'Day's Lucky Camouflage 10

Historical Quiz: Some Entertaining Marines 12

Visiting Marine Vets Share Memories of World War I 13

New Art for Collection Portrays Marines in the Arctic 15

Remodeled, Expanded Air-Ground Museum Reopens 18

LVT's Direct Ancestor Ready for 'Early Years' Exhibit 20

Soviet Vehicle in Collection Thanks to 2d AAV Bn 21

Language Officers Recall Combat Roles in the Pacific 23

In Memoriam: Island War Planner, Former History Director Dies 25

Memoir Describes Spectacular Okinawa Attack 26

Center Treated to Call by Real Iwo Jima Flag Raiser 27

Reserve Historical Unit Report: Field Historian Providedfor 2d MAB in Exercise 28

New Books: Modern Wars Dominate Offerings to Marine Readers 29

New Publications of the History and Museums Division 30Base Facilities Named to Honor Vietnam War Heroes 31

Flight Lines: Douglas R4D-6/C-47J Skytrain 32

Korean U7ar Chronology: November-December 1950 33Gen Thomas Biography to be Written by Col Millett 36

THE COVERMaj DonnaJ. Neary, USMCR, is a professional artist, the origi-nator of the Marine Corps Uniforms 1983 color plates on dis-play throughout the Corps, and a frequent contributor toFortitudine. The self-portrait sketch at right and the cover forthis issue are products of her participation in a Marine cold-weather exercise in Norway, when a canvas map case served tocarry her sketchbooks, pens, pencils, and camera. The artworkis part of a collection described by the artist in an article be-ginning on page 15. On the cover, a Marine—two days afterthe landing in northern Norway— stands alert for signs of theenemy in an all-white snowscape.

Forlitudine is produced in the Publications Production Section of the History and Museums Divi-sion. The text for Fortitudine is set in 10-point and 8-point Garamond typeface. Headlines are in 18-pointor 24-point Garamond. The newsletter is printed on 70-pound, matte-coated paper by offset lithography.

Volume XV

HISTORYAND MUSEUMSDIVISION

No.4

Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

Washington. D.C. 20374-0580Telephone: (202) 433-3838, 433-3840, 433-3841

DIREC1DRBGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)

HIS1ORICAL BRANCHMr. Henry I. Shaw, Jr.

Acting Deputy Director for History

Mr. Henry I. Shaw, Jr.Assistant,Depury Director for History/Chief Historian

Histories Section: Mr. Jack Shulimson; LtCol Cyril V. Moyher,USMCR;Ma) Frank M. Batha,Jr., USMC; Ma) G. Ross Dunham, USMC; Mr.Charles R. Smith; Dr. V. Keith Fleming, Jr.

Reference Section: Mr. DanoyJ. Crawford; Mr. Robert V. Aquilina;Mrs. Ann A. Ferranre; Miss Lena M. KaIjot; Mrs. Regina Srrorher.

Oral History Section: Mr. Benis M. Frank.

Archioes: Mrs. Joyce E, Bonnert.

MUSEUMS BRANCHCol F. B. Nihari, USMC (Ret)Deputy Director for Museums

Mr. Charles A. WoodChief Curator

Artist-in-ResidenceCol Charles H. Waterhouse, USMCR

Marine Barracks, Special Projects: Mr. Richard A. long. Material His-tory: Mr. Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas. Exhibits: Mr. Carl M. DeVere,Sr.; SSgr Michael V. Gaicher, USMC; Mr. Benny L. Lenox, Sr. Art:Mr. John T. Dyer,Jr. Personal Papera: Mr.J. Michael Miller. Registrar:Mr. John H. McGarry Ill.

Museums Actcvrties, QuanticoLtCol Rudy T. Schwanda, USMC

Officer-in-Charge

Assistant Officer in Charge: Capt David C. Uhley. USMC. Ordnance:Mr. Anthony W. Tommell. Restoraeion: Mr. Joseph E. Payron. Avia-tion: Vacant. Exhibits: Mr. RonaldJ. Perkins. Uniforms: Mrs. NancyF. King. Security: GySgt Starlin W. Andrews, USMC

SUPPORT BRANCHMaj Danny R. Smith, USMC

Head/Division Executive Officer

Administration: CWO2 J. C. Owens, USMC: Sgr Donald Jackson,USMC. Security: GySgt C. W. Viar, USMC. Library: Miss Fvelyn A.Englander.

Publications Production: Mr. Rohert E. Struder. Production: Mrs.Catherine A. Kerns. Graphics: Mr. William S. Hill. Typesetting: CplJames W. Rodriguez II, USMC.

Editor, FortitudineMr. Robert 8. Scruder

Director's Page

Wailer at SamarBGen Simmons

T here are certain things in life that areunchangeable and immutable. One

of those things is that the Wallow of theMilitary Order of the Carabao is held onthe first Saturday evening in February. Soit was that 976 members of the Herd andguests gathered at the 86th Annual Wal-low at the Sheraton Washington Hotel inWashington on 1 February.

The luminaries at the head table weretoo numerous to be listed here and theymight not want to be listed anyway. It isan unabashedly chauvinistic and jingois-tic evening. BGen Charles L. Cogswell,USMC (Ret), as Grand Paramount Cara-bao, presided. Gen Paul X. Kelley, ourCommandant, made the head table butwas well down the list in seniority.

The Marine Drum and Bugle Corps wasdeafeningly present and, as always,brought the audience, mostly grayheads,

The program cover of the annual Wallowtraditionally features a caricature of thecurrent Grand Paramount Carabao by not-edcartoonist Gib Crockett. BGen CharlesL. Cogswell, USMCR (Ret), is the most re-cent Marine to hold the highest office.

to its feet. The Marine Band had an evenlarger role to play. This year, as always,there was a satirical musical revue the ex-act nature of which is best left unreport-ed. The members of the band double asthe chorus and some of the principals ofthe Carabao Players. Baritone MGySgtMichael Ryan is a particular favorite. BandDirector Col John R. Bourgeois is theDirector del Musico. The last time JohnPhilip Sousa directed the Marine Band be-fore his death was at a Carabao Wallow.

T he Marines have always been strongin the Carabao and with good rea-

son. The order was organized in Manilain November 1900 as a parody of the Ord-er of the Dragon, formed in Peking byofficer participants in the Boxer Cam-paign. Membership originally was limit-ed to officers who fought in thePhilippines from 1898 to 1902 and this in-cluded a good number of Marines. Mem-bership criteria have since becomeconsiderably more elastic. To quote a 1939history of the Order: "The 'Days of Em-pire' grow remote as time passes, but thememories of those days of spirit, adven-ture, danger and romance will live foreverthrough the Veteran and Associate Cara-baos, and the Teneros, or Calf-Carabaos,those adult sons of the original Veteranswho are also full members." There are nowalso Amphibious Carabao, CompaneroCarabao, and Honorary Carabao, the lastclassification being reserved for Presidentsof the United States and formerGovernors-General of the Philippines.

Headquarters of the Carabao is tradi-tionally the Army and Navy Club onWashington's Farragut Square. That clubis currently being re-built so the head-quarters is somewhat dispersed. We arestoring some of the records and parapher-nalia at the Marine Corps HistoricalCenter. The winter season's monthlyluncheons are being held at Blackie'sHouse of Beef. I had the honor of speak-

3

ing at one of those luncheons on 21January.

T he subject of my talk was Maj Little-ton W. T. Wailer, USMC. His Vir-

ginia family was so proud of that name"Walier" that they used it twice, combin-ing it with another good Virginia name,"Tazewell," so his full name was LittietonWailer Tazewell Waller. On 29 February1902 he returned with his battalion to Ca-vite. As he testified later:

"Leaving Samar without thefaintest suspicion of anythingwrong we reached Cavite . . . we

expected a warm welcome home.This welcome we received fromthe flagship New York — theship's sides were lined and cheerafter cheer went up for us . .

I went to report to myCommander-in-Chief and wasmet with the charge of murder."

Most of my audience at the luncheonwere retired senior officers. I supposed thatmost of them had sat on a general court-

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TRA$PORTA1IOMAND YOUU.BILLETED A1THg

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martial at one time or another, but Idoubted if many, if any at all, had ever saton a court where the charge was murder.So I suggested that they now had thatchance and that we would re-try a case thatwas now almost 85 years old.

T he case really began in September1901. Company C, 9th U.S. Infantry,

was three months back from China andnow occupying Balangiga in southern Sa-mar. Balangiga was a collection of nipahuts clustered around the only two realbuildings in the town, a city hall andchurch built of coral and plaster. The sold-iers were barracked on the second floor ofthe church and their mess tents were setup close-by.

About a year earlier, Gen Vincente Luc-ban, half-Chinese and half-Tagalog, hadcome to Samar to organize the insurrec-tion. The Americans called the natives"Moros," but they were basically Negritoswith Chinese, Moro, and Spanish bloodmixed in, and they spoke a Visayan di-alect. The Spanish had left them in closeto their aboriginal state. No road went intothe interior and there were few trails.

Lucban's followers had some muzzle-loading muskets, numerous "bamboo"cannon called lantacas, a fearsome repu-tation, and, of course, bob knives. Theyused dead-falls, mantraps, and pits linedwith sharpened bamboo stakes. A nativepolice chief suspected of collaboratingwith the Americans was burned at thestake with a kerosene-soaked Americanflag wrapped around his head.

The commanding officer of CompanyC, 9th Infantry, was Capt Thomas W.Connell, U.S. Military Academy, Class of1894. He was a good man and he thoughtthat with kind words and deeds and im-proved sanitation, he could keep insurrec-tion from coming to Balangiga. Onreturning from patrol on 27 September1901, he learned of President McKinley'sassassination. He ordered his men to wearblack arm bands.

T he next morning was Sunday and thetroops, at their own pace, came wan-

dering into the mess tents for breakfast.Hash, biscuits, and coffee were beingserved. Only three sentries were underarms.

Then, while the church bells rang outin frantic alarm, insurrectos came in at thesoldiers from all sides. Very few of the sold-iers reached their Krag-Jorgenson rifles or.45-caliber revolvers.

Of the three officers and 71 enlistedmen at Balangiga only 26 men survived.Some of these managed to reach Basey,some 30 miles up the western coast. Com-pany G, 9th Infantry, the garrison at Basey,piled into the gunboat Vicksburg andcame charging down on Balangiga. Beforethey landed, the 1,000-ton Vicksburgworked over the town with her six 4-inchguns.

Company G went ashore and found 250native dead as well as the mutilated bod-ies of 36 of their comrades from Compa-ny C. The decapitated body of CaptConnell was found in a latrine. His fingerhad been cut off to get his class ring andhis head had been slow-roasted over a fire.

Lucban continued his insurrection. On16 October, Company D, 9th Infantry, met

4

Bolomen at UYeyler carried Krag riflesprobably taken in the Balangiga attack.

400 bolomen at Lower Gandara, killed 81of them, but lost ten dead and six wound-ed themselves. Next day the garrison atWeyler was attacked by 100 natives, someof them armed with Krag rifles apparent-ly taken at Balangiga.

The U.S. Army commander in thePhilippines was MajGen Adna RomanzaChaffee, a tough, leathery 60-year-old whohad come up through the ranks during theCivil War. He had fought Indians on theplains and more recently, during the Boxertroubles, had commanded the U.S. forcesin China. He was a member of the Orderof the Dragon and would be the GrandParamount Carabao in 1902.

T o put down the insurrection in Sa-mar he activated the Sixth Separate

Brigade to be commanded by BGenJacobH. Smith, USA, a small man with a bigvoice that gave him his nickname "Hell-Roaring Jake." Smith set up his brigadeheadquarters at Tacloban, across the Straitsof San Juanico from Basey. There weren'tenough soldiers to fill out his brigade sohe suggested that the Navy might providea battalion of Marines from the two-regiment brigade at Cavite.

Chaffee telegraphed back to Smith:"Admiral Rodgers offers three hundred

Gen Vicente Lucban 's insurrectos werearmed with muzzle-loading muskets, bobknives, and a fearsome reputation.

'3W

Twenty of Lucban's stragglers wererounded up, put to digging a mass gravefor the American dead, and then turnedover to a firing squad made up of survivorsof Company C. The native dead were piledin a heap, doused with kerosene, and

I

-Durne

Marines. Where is the best place to sendthem?"

Smith replied, "Would recommend Ma-rines be sent Basey and east includingBalangiga.

Q n 21 October, Maj Wailer receivedwritten orders naming him "Com-

manding Officer of the Marine Battaliondestined for service in the Island of Samar

On the following day he receivedan important modification to his orders:he was not to regard himself as detachedfrom the 1st Brigade of Marines.

Wailer was then 45 years old, a short,sturdy man with a strong nose, and an im-pressive mustache. In the Spanish-American War he served in the Indianaand was present at Santiago de Cuba inthe defeat of Adm Cervera's fleet. Afterthe battle he was sent ashore with a land-ing party to take off the wounded andprisoners from three Spanish ships. Forthis he received a special meritorious serv-ice medal.

He commanded a battalion (and attimes the Marine regiment) in the BoxerRebellion and was advanced two numberson the lineal list and brevetted a lieu-tenant colonel for distinguished conductin the Battle of Tientsin. His men invari-ably referred to him as "the Colonel." His

friends called him "Tony." He was knownto like his whiskey.

His battalion, consisting of four com-panies, embarked in the New York on 22October, altogether himself, 13 Marineofficers, two Navy doctors, and 300 Ma-rines in broad-brimmed field hats, blueflannel shins, khaki trousers and leggings,and heavy marching order.

Next morning the New York reachedCatbalogan in the Straits of San Juanico.Gen Smith came on board for a confer-ence with RAdm Fred Rodgers, Com-mander, Southern Squadron. Smithdefined the territory in which Wailer wasto operate and made clear his wishes, af-terwards reported as "I want no prisoners.I wish you to burn and kill. The more youburn and kill, the better it will please me."

Waller then drafted his basic operationorder, dividing his battalion into twoparts; half to go to Balangiga, the re-mainder to stay at Basey with the battal-ion headquaners. Patrol operations, whichWailer called "expeditions," began im-mediately from both Basey and Balangiga.

Smith specifically directed that thecampaign be waged in accordance

with General Order 100 of 1863. This ord-er, issued by Lincoln, was a code of 157articles for the "government of armies inthe field General Order 100 hadserved the Army well in the Civil War andin the Indian Wars. It prohibited wantonviolence under penalty of death but it alsogave commanding officers broad powersunder martial law to punish treachery.

Smith at Tacioban was soon receivingalmost daily reports from Wailer of somany bolomen and carabao killed, somany huts burned, so many boats sunk ordestroyed. Lucban's base, however, was atSojoton where he had a fortified positionin 200-foot-high cliffs that appearedalmost impregnable.

On 17 November, Wailer made a three-pronged attack against Sojoton, cominghimself by way of the Cadacan River, whiletwo other columns under his two seniorcompany commanders, Capt David Port-er and Capt Hiram Bearss, marched byland. The Marines went up bamboo scal-ing ladders to get at the insurrectos andin hand-to-hand fighting killed 30 ofthem. Wailer recommended that Porterand Bearss be given either Medals ofHonor or brevet promotions. Gen Smith,Gen Chaffee, and everyone up to and in-

5

ciuding the Secretary of War, Eiihu Root,congratulated Wailer and his Marines ontheir performance at Sojoton.

p atrolling went on and so did the kill-ing of insurgents, but the assault on

Sojoton seemed to end organizedresistance in southern Samar. Smith nowordered Wailer to run a telegraph wirefrom Basey to Balangiga, then to go onaround to Lanang on the east coast, andfrom there scout a telegraph route over-land across Samar back to Basey.

Wailer marched out of Basey on 8 De-cember. For the next several weeks he oper-ated from Balangiga, getting into severalfirefights and coming back to the coast onChristmas for a holiday menu of roastcarabao with boiled potatoes, onions, andbiscuits, and a reading of Dicken's AChristmas Carol by Wailer himself. Nextday, with fifty men, he started up theshoreline for Lanang. The rest of his com-mand returned to Balangiga.

Wailer arrived at Lanang, which was gar-risoned by Company K, U.S. 1st Infantry,on 27 December. His plan was to go upthe Lanang River as far as possible, thenacross the mountains to Sojoton, and thendown the coast into Basey. The straight-line distance looked to be 35 or 40 miles.Wailer figured it to be a four to six daymarch. An Army lieutenant, who had justreturned from a 12-day patrol, however,warned him that the supposed trail acrossSamar to Sojoton did not exist.

N ext morning, 28 December, theexpedition, consisting of Wailer, five

officers including Captains Porter andBearss, 50 enlisted Marines, some soldiersfrom Company K, 33 native porters or car-gadores, and two native guides namedSmoke and Slim, loaded into boats theFilipinos called bancas and started upriver. They made 17 miles the first day andeight miles the second day. From then onit would have to be overland. The boatswere sent back with the 1st Infantry sold-iers. It rained incessantly and Wailer's menwere already suffering from leeches andbeing constantly wet.

On the 31st they reached the crest of themountain range and next day, New Year'sDay 1902, they started down the slope fol-lowing a compass course of west southwest.This should have brought them to theSojoton River but it did not. The river theyintersected was the Suribao and it flowed

(Continued on page 7)

Maj IValler's battalion on Samar consist-ed of 13 officers, two Navy doctors, and300 Marines in broad-brimmedfield hats.

Acquisitions

Samar Marine's Rare Linen Coat Given to Museumby John H McGariy III, Registrar

W hen Maj Wailer's column reached Basey after theirarduous trek through the mountains, Wailer report-

ed that one sergeant turned to him and said, "I don't thinkwe would show up well at a drawing room." Wailer stated thecondition of his own uniform as rags, and his hat a hat bycourtesy only.

Included with the annual report to the Commandant forthe year 1902 is a description of material issued to the battal-ion of Marines ordered to Samar to quell the insurrection.Among the items provided to Marines for field service thatyear were linen coats.

These uniquely Marine Corps coats traditionally have puz-zled the curatorial staff. None were known to be in existenceand photographs of the period are lacking sufficient detailto see how they were constructed. It was known that the li-nen coats were developed for service in Cuba. In the 1898report to the Commandant, Maj F L. Denny, Quartermasterof the Marine Corps, says the health of the men in this tropi-cal campaign was greatly enhanced by the issue of linen cam-paign suits. These suits are described as light in weight, andof strong texture. They are listed among items procured bythe Quartermaster over the next several years.

T he procurement of clothing at the turn of the century washandled in practically the same way it had been during

the Revolutionary War, more than a century earlier. The Quar-termaster purchased bolts of cloth by contract. When received,the material was cut to a specific pattern by a professionalcutter who was a civilian employee of the Marine Corps. Thecut cloth was issued to "operatives" for assembly. These women(widows and orphans of Marines being given preference)would take the cut cloth to their homes and sew themtogether. After completion, they would be returned to theQuartermaster for inspection, and the operatives would bepaid ona piecemeal basis.

The Marines in the foreground of this photograph of the Pek-ing relief expedition are believed to be wearing the linentropical-weight coats also issued to Marines in the Philippines.

6

By 1900 the linen coats were being issued to Marines sta-tioned in hot climates, including the detachments in thePhilippines. This accounts for the descriptions of the linencoats appearing in the relief columns sent to aid the Lega-tion Guard during the Boxer Rebellion. Not all Marines inthe relief column, nor in the Philippines brigade, would havebeen seen in the linen suits, as the khaki trousers and blueflannel shirts were more widely worn. But the photographicrecord indicates that these lighter-weight garments did in factsee service. Until quite recently, however, there was no hardevidence of the fact.

In November 1984, Charles S. Morgan made a visit to theHistorical Center to conduct research on his father, who hadserved with Maj Wailer in the Philippines and took part inthe march across the mountains. In later correspondence withBGen Simmons, Mr. Morgan asked if the Museum would beinterested in his father's effects from this service. One yearlater, two boxes arrived from Concord, Massachusetts. Theboxes contained an assortment of handmade bob knives andscabbards, a Filipino blow gun, buttons, insignia, and a brownlinen uniform coat!

U pon inspection, the coat appears to be made of a medi-um weight pure linen fabric. It has a rise-and-fall col-

lar, and two slash front breast pockets. It is well made, care-fully cut and machine sewn, exactly as an item supplied bythe Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot should appear. Un-fortunately, it lacks any of the traditional quartermaster in-spection marks, but this is not unusual in uniforms of thetime.

The coat is in excellent condition, and appears never to havebeen worn. The material, while no doubt comfortable in atropical climate, without constant care would have shown wearquickly—perhaps helping us to understand why Maj Wailer'ssergeant would not "show up well at a drawing room."

The donation of his father's brown linen Marine Corps uni-form coat by Charles S. Morgan helped curators fill a knowngap in the Museum collection and provided needed facts.

(Continued from page 5)east not west. Rafts were built but wouldnot float, their maps, bad as they were,were lost. The expedition was soon downto one-third rations.

By 3 January it was obvious to Wailerthat most of his men were no longer

in a physical state to keep up. He decidedto press on to the west coast with one lieu-tenant and 13 of the Marines who werestill in good shape. Capt Porter was leftbehind with the main column. Porter's in-structions were to follow at a slow pacealong a trail which Wailer would mark.

At mid-day on the 3rd, WaIler and hismen reached a clearing. WaIler made a firewith the lens of his field glasses and hispatrol dined on bananas, palm hearts, androasted sweet potatoes.

About this time Capt Bearss and a cor-poral caught up with them with a mes-sage from Porter, apparently askingpermission to return to Lanang. Wailersent off a native runner named Victor witha reply to Porter telling him to come for-ward to the clearing and rest his menthere.

The next day, 4 January, WaIler's party

reached another clearing, this one inhabit-ed. They captured five natives, two ofwhom, a man and a boy, said they knewthe way to Basey. The other captives werereleased and these two were placed underguard to act as guides.

On the 5th they reached the SojotonRiver but found it too rain-swollen tocross. During the day Victor, the runnerwhom Wailer had sent with the messageto Porter, rejoined Wailer's party. He saidthat he had been unable to get throughto Porter. That night, sleeping under ablanket, Wailer felt someone stealthilyremoving his bob from his side. He kickedthe knife out of the intruder's hand andput his pistol to his head. The intruderturned out to be Victor.

Wailer's party reached the CadacanRiver the following day. Here they weremet by a cutter sent up by the garrison atBasey. They tumbled on board and bymid-afternoon were in Basey. Wailer saidof these men: "Cut, torn, bruised, anddilapidated they had marched withoutmurmur for twenty-nine days, and, hav-ing accomplished what no white troopshad done before, they thought not of it

but of each other." Since 8 Decemberwhen they first left Basey, they hadmarched 190 miles.

W ailer changed into a clean uniformand crossed over the Straits of

Tacloban to report to Smith. A relief partyleft that evening to search for the Marineshe had left behind. Wailer himself joinedthe relief party two days later. The partyremained out in the bush for nine daysbut could find no trace of Porter and hisMarines. On 17 January WaIler returnedto Basey and collapsed with fever and ex-haustion.

Capt Porter, failing to receive a reply tothe message he had sent forward with CaptBearss, had decided to return to Lanang.Like Wailer, he also decided to go aheadwith a party of Marines in the best physi-cal shape. In this case he took lstSgt JohnQuick, who already had a Medal of Honorfrom Guantanamo in 1898, six Marines,and six natives. He started back on 3 Janu-ary, leaving behind the rest of the patrolunder lstLt Alexander Williams. Uponreaching the Lanang River, Porter droppedoff four of his seven Marines who were too

Wailer felt someone stealthily removing his bob from his side. to his head It was the native runner Victor (Special iliustra-He kicked the knife out of the intruder's hand andputapisto/ tions for this article are by Maj John T Dyer Jr., USMCR fRetJ,).

7

weak to proceed. He reached Lanang fourdays later, on 11 January.

Because of flood conditions it was notuntil 14 January that Company K, 1st In-fantry, could start a relief party back up-river. A day later they reached the fourmen Porter had left behind and on 16January reached Williams and the re-mainder of his party. Williams had beenstabbed several times by one of the nativeporters. Ten of his Marines had beendropped off along the trail. Five wereknown to be dead. Five simply disap-peared. Those who were left were inwretched condition.

T he gunboat Arayat took the 24surviving Marines and the ten re-

maining cargadores from Lanang to Baseyon 19 January. Waller was still sick witha fever that sometimes went up to 105degrees. He listened to his officers andnon-commissioned officers, all of whomrecommended that the cargadores be shot.

Early afternoon on 20 January a lieu-tenant marched nine of the natives underguard down Basey's main street to thetown plaza. A Marine firing party shot thenine in groups of three. Another Filipinohad been executed the day before and onemore would be executed later in the day.One of those executed was the nativeguide Slim. Another was Victor.

On 22 January Wailer reported the ex-ecutions in a telegram to Smith, saying:"It became necessary to expend elevenprisoners. Ten who were implicated in theattack on Lieutenant Williams and onewho plotted against me."

On 23 January Gen Chaffee arrived atTacloban.

"Smith," he asked, "Have you been hav-ing any promiscuous killing in Samar forfun?"

W ailer heard of this inquiry but wasnot disturbed. On 19 February

welcome orders came ftom Marine Brigadeheadquarters. On the arrival of the trans-port Lawton, his battalion would returnto Cavite.

So it was that Wailer and his battalionarrived at Cavite on 29 February where helearned that Gen Chaffee had preferredcharges against him for the murder of 11natives of the Philippine Islands. Chaffee,it must be said, was reluctant to court-martial Wailer but he had his ordersstraight from the Secretary of War, ElihuRoot.

The general court-martial convened inManila on the morning of 21 March 1902.Presiding was BGen William H. Bisbee,USA, himself a tough old Indian fighter.The remainder of the court consisted ofsix Army and six Marine officers.

8

Wailer's first plea was to challenge thejurisdiction of the court. His counsel, go-ing back to Walker's original orders asmodified, argued that he had not beendetached from the 1st Marine Brigade andthus did not come under the Army's Ar-ticles of War. The court concluded thatthis was indeed the case, but their deci-sion was overruled by Gen Chaffee, theconvening authority. Chaffee was underconsiderable political pressure and was notgoing to have the charges dismissed be-cause of a technicality.

T he trial went on in the stifling Manilaheat. In his defense, Wailer cited Ar-

ticle 82 of General Order 100 which stat-ed that guerrillas, "if captured, are notentitled to the privileges of prisoners ofwar, but shall be treated summarily as rob-bers and pirates."

"Hell-Roaring Jake" Smith, called totestify for the defense, turned out to bean evasive witness. He denied that he hadever told Wailer to "kill and burn." He de-nied that he had ever mentioned GeneralOrder 100 to Wailer. This was an evasionof the worst sort: he had perhaps not dis-cussed the order in conversation but hehad referenced it in his written orders forthe conduct of the campaign.

The trial went on for 18 long days.Then, after less than a half-hour's deliber-ation, the court announced its verdict.

Before telling the assembled Carabaoshow the court voted, I asked them for theirown verdict. There were about a hundredpresent at the luncheon and only onefound Wailer guilty. (Later it turned outhe had misunderstood some of the cir-cumstances.)

The Manila court-martial had voted foracquittal, 11 to two.

Secretary of War Root did not like theresults of the court-martial and said

so. The Judge Advocate General, however,eventually threw out the whole proceed-ings. As Wailer's counsel had first argued,he determined that the court was withoutjurisdiction.

Immediately after Wailer's trial, "Hell-Roaring Jake" Smith was himself court-martialled, found guilty of "conduct to theprejudice of good order and discipline,"and sentenced to be admonished. Themild sentence did not please PresidentTheodore Roosevelt who ordered Smithplaced on the retired list.

Early in the afternoon of2O January a lieutenant marched nine of the natives underguard down Basey 's main street to the town plaza. A Marine firing party shot the ninein groups of three. Among those executed were the native runners Slim and Victor

Three Sources for Marine Picturesby Danny J. Crawford

Head Reference Section

R egular readers of Fortitudine may recall that in the Summer 1981 issue,we reported that the Marine Corps Historical Center was losing its Still

Photo Archives. At that time all Marine Corps still photographs from 1941 tothe present, held at the Center since its opening in 1977, were moved to thenew Defense Audiovisual Agency (DAVA) facility at the Anacostia Naval Stationin Washington, D.C.

The Department of Defense had created DAVA in October 1980 with the goalof providing centralized management and control of all the Armed Forces' stilland motion media facilities, and to provide cost savings by eliminating duplica-tion of personnel and equipment.

The loss of the Center's photo resources, however, created difficulties not onlyfor our visiting researchers who had grown accustomed to doing their "one stop"historical research at the Center, but also for numerous in-house needs such asphoto support for museum displays, historical monographs and articles, and otherprojects produced in the Division. Initially, the Reference Section assigned oneof its historians the additional duty of assisting with in-house and other officialphotographic requests, while serving as a liaison between our Division and thevarious photographic depositories. It soon became apparent, however, that a full-time photo researcher was needed in the Division due to the heavy volume ofphoto requirements.

By the end of 1983, Mrs. Regina Strother, who had worked with Marine Corpsphotographs for nine years, both at the Center and later at DAVA, was hard

at work meeting the diverse photographic needs of the History and MuseumsDivision. Over the past two years, Mrs. Strother has responded to hundreds ofin-house and official Marine Corps photo requests and has established a histori-cal photographic file which now contains more than 1,000 images. Having a full-time photo researcher, and the photographic file, has enhanced the operationsof our publications and exhibits program and improved the service we can pro-vide to Headquarters Marine Corps.

A review early last year of the functions and responsibilities assigned to DAVAconvinced the Secretary of Defense that these functions and responsibilities couldbe more effectively performed by operating on a decentralized basis, and he direct-ed the disestablishment of DAVA effective 30 September 1985. The Navy Depart-ment has been assigned executive agent for all still photo holdings.

T he Marine Corps still photo collection, containing more than 500,000 im-ages, will remain in its present location at the Anacostia Naval Station, ac-

cessible to researchers of Marine Corps photos covering the past 45 years. Thedepository is now called the DOD Central Still Photo Depository.

Photos depicting the Marine Corps prior to World War II have been held atthe National Archives and Records Administration since 1972. Researchers shouldwrite to the proper activity for photographic assistance:

For still photographs taken prior to 1941 and motion pictures taken prior to1960: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Audio-VisualDepartment, Washington, D.C. 20408; telephone (202) 523-3236.

For Marine Corps photographs dating from 1941: DOD Central Still PhotoDepository, Building 168, NDW, Anacostia Naval Station, Washington, D.C.20374; telephone: (202) 433-2166/2168.

For motion pictures dating from 1960: DOD Central Motion Media Deposi-tory, Norton Air Force Base, California 92409; telephone: (714) 382-2513.

Wailer and his battalion were sent homein May 1902. Ahead of Wailer were manyyears of distinguished service. He com-manded Marine brigades in active com-paigning in Panama, in Cuba, at VeraCruz, and in Haiti. He did not, however,became Commandant, as well he mighthave, if it had not been for the businessof Samar.

During World War I he was side-linedin Philadelphia as the commanding gener-al of the Advance Base Force. He retiredin 1920 as a major general and died in1926.

His two senior company commanders,Capt Porter and Capt Bearss, eventuallyreceived Medals of Honor for Sojoton, butnot until 1934 when they got them fromFranklin D. Roosevelt.

A s I told the Carabao luncheon, theyare all gone now, those Marines who

served with Wailer, but while they lived,when a survivor of the march entered theofficers mess, there was a toast: "Stand,gentlemen, he served on Samar."

The gentlemen at the luncheon stoodand repeated that toast once again,perhaps for the last time:

"Stand, gentlemen—they served onSamar." Eli 775L1

USMC GrandParamount Carabaos

The following distinguished Marineshave served as Grand ParamountCarabaos:

MajGen George F. Elliott 1907MajGen Wendell C. Neville. . . 1921

MajGen Ben H. Fuller 1930BGen Hugh Matthews 1935MajGen James G. Breckinridge.1939BGen Charles R. Sanderson.. . 1946

Gen Clifton B. Cates 1950Gen Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.. . 1956

Col Jean W. Moreau 1960Gen Graves B. Erskine 1964LtGen Alan Shapley 1969Gen Leonard F Chapman 1973LtGen Frederick L. Wieseman. . 1977

LtGen Herman Nickerson, Jr.. . 1981

BGen Charles L. Cogswell 1985

9

Readers Always W/rite

How Biggest Ship Was Sunk; O'Day's Lucky Camouflage

TORPEDOING THE HIEI

I was pleasantly surprised to see the pic-ture of the "Turkey," the TBF Avenger, thetype of aircraft I flew in as a turret gun-ner during World War II [Fortitudine, Fall1985].

I was more surprised when the article"Flight Lines," on page 29, mentioned myold squadron VMTB-131.

I was most pleasantly surprised to seethe mentioning of the first flight of Ma-rine aircraft to torpedo attack the battle-ship Hiei, the largest battleship in theworld.

However, you did not mention by namewho were the pilots and crews .

One of those TBFs was flown by Lt Mar-tin Roush. The radioman was PFC May-nard and the turret gunner was SgtDominick Pace. I do believe Lt Roush wasthe flight leader of that section.

This is how I remember that mission:The pilots assembled in the operations

tent on that morning of 11 November(maybe the 10th) and drew "lots" for theirtargets. Some went after the cruisers, orthe battlewagons, etc.

Roush drew the battleship for ourtarget.

We took off on that morning from Hen-derson Field. We climbed and slowly cir-cled to the right, keeping the scatteredcloud layer between us and the Japanesebattlewagon. Hiei was in the middle oftheir fleet.

When we were east of the battleship,the other planes broke from the formationand it was every plane for themselves.

Lt Roush put us east of the target so wewould be coming in out of the sun, andalso, we would hit them and continuetoward Guadalcanal and home base.

Roush immediately "dropped" thatplane from about seven thousand feet towave-top high. We came in at sea level andI mean sea level. We were attacking themfrom their 10 o'clock position.

I swivelled my turret as far to the leftas I could (normally the turret faces aft.)so that I could see over the .50 caliber(which is on my left side). And it offeredme a little more protection.

The radioman, Maynard, was down in

the "hole" not knowing just what the hellwas going on. I tried to tell him as muchas I could using hand signals.

As Lt Roush bored on in, I could seethat "wagon" getting bigger and bigger.They were throwing everything at us. Wecouldn't miss. I remember praying thatRoush wouldn't get hit. We had no chanceof bailing out. The "red golf balls" keptstreaking past us. Our propeller tips musthave been inches from the wave tops.

When we got close to range, Roush hadto "set-up" for the torpedo launch. Forthat minute or so (seemed like an hour)we were like sitting ducks. Roush had tobe at the right altitude, so, he had toclimb a little; we couldn't be in any kindof a sideslip; and we had to be perfectlylevel. And at the same time figure in thecorrect amount of lead for the torpedo tocourse. All this while under intense anti-aircraft fire.

Roush held that torpedo until absoluteminimum range.

Immediately after the launch, we dovefor wave-top level and continued towardthe Hiei presenting a minimum profile.When we got to just before the bow of thewagon, Roush pulled up and put theplane in a hard starboard turn. We flewclose to the ship (couldn't have been morethan 150-200 feet) and parallel from bowto stern.

Flying parallel to the battlewagon, Icould now use my weapon. I had the per-fect strafing position. And that I did. Iraked that ship from bow to stern. I canstill see those tracers bouncing in the gun"tubs" off the decks and into openhatches. I can also remember the Japanesesailors in the gun tubs firing at us.

Maynard couldn't get an angle to strafe.All he could do was look out the little sideport hole and pray, I guess. He had thehard part.

We flew away from the stern of the ship,climbing slowly, away from all ships andback to Henderson bomber strip.

I do believe Lt Roush was the only onewho scored a direct hit on that first histor-ical flight.

Miraculously, we did not take many hits.I think there were only seven or eight holesin our plane. But there was a large rip,

10

about a foot long through the left elevator.Lt Roush and I flew together from that

first mission until the end of the war, twocombat tours.

GySgt Dominick Pace, USMC (Ret)Pascagoula, Mississippi

W/AR BETW/EEN THE STATES?

my attention was drawn to the listof battle honors inscribed on the MarineMemorial [Fort itudine, Winter198 5-1986]. I note with interest that theMarine Corps, as opposed to other Feder-al agencies, chose as a title for the con-flict of 1861-65, "War Between the States"vice "Civil War." Can those of us fromsouth of the Potomac surmise that this in-scription includes an indirect salute tothose gallant men of the ConfederateStates Marines? I wonder what the storyis behind this point?

David 0. HaleWoodbridge, Virginia

EDITOR'S NOTE: In February 1952 the20th Commandant, Gen Lemuel C.Shepherd, Jr., revieweda proposed list ofwars and campaigns to be inscribed on theMarine Corps War Memorial. GenShepherd, a Virginian and graduate of theVirginia Military Institute, in his ownhand substituted "W"ir Between theStates"for the typed entry "Civil War" onthe list. The term, "Civil War, " had be-come preferred usage only relatively re-cently. In the south the war had beenknown variously as "War of Secession,""War of Northern Aggression, "and "WarBetween the States. "In the north it wasofficially "War of the Rebellion." GenShepherd may have been reacting to thesouthern influences of his youth.

VETERAN REPEATS FLAG RAISE

Many thanks for the excellent articleregarding MajGen James L. Day and thereturn of the 48-star flag to Okinawa forthe 40th anniversary [Fortitudine, Winter1985-1986]. It is important to add to thearticle the fact that on 21 June 1985 thathallowed flag was raised by formermachine gunner Cpl Dan Dereschuk, asurvivor of G-2-22 who raised that same

flag on both the northern and southernends of that bloody battlefield in 1945.Dan was also nearby when Maj Courtney,executive officer of 2-22, was killed on Su-gar Loaf and subsequently awarded theMedal of Honor. Dan now lives in SantaRosa, California and his daughter Jean isa Marine captain stationed on Okinawa.

Charles J. Leonard, Jr.Danville, California

SEARCHING KHE SANH VETS

I am author of Chosin: Heroic Ordealof the Korean War, 76 Hours: The Inva-sion of Tarawa, and The Root: The Ma-rines in Beirut.

I am presently writing a narrative ac-count of the Siege of Khe Sanh (January-April 1968) and need to receive detailedpersonal accounts from participants.

I would appreciate hearing from any-one who served at or in support of the KheSanh Combat Base (including air and ar-tillery) during the siege.

Eric Hammel1149 Grand Teton Dr.

Pacifica, California 94044

THE BRITS W/ORE 'TOP HATS'

A note to say how much I enjoyed read-ing your article "The Battles of Craney Is-land and Hampton" in the Fall 1985 issueof Fortitudine. It is a most interesting ac-count of a little-known incident and sinceit in part concerns my old Corps, the Roy-al Marines, it was naturally of more thanpassing interest to myself. In general Ifound this issue of the magazine to be ofoutstanding quality as to content and con-gratulate all concerned in its production.

I am sure you will not object if I men-tion that apart from the drawing on page7 showing an officer, none of the otherdrawings can depict Royal Marines as theynever at any time wore the head-dressshown—the so-called "Belgian" shako—nor for that matter did they wear itspredecessor the "stove-pipe" shako. Whilstthe British Army was wearing these typesof head-dress the Royal Marines, convert-ed from the centre company tricorn, lightcompany cap and grenadier companybearskin to the famous "top hat" head-dress as worn at Trafalgar and elsewhereduring the Napoleonic wars. I assume

either your artist worked from incorrect in-formation or he was depicting either theBritish Army or Canadian troops involved.Even the Royal Marine Artillery wore the"top hat" with a very large and ornamen-tal plate on the front, specimens of whichmay be seen in our Corps museum andin reference books. The infantry Marineused the plume or tuft which in the caseof the officer illustrated on page 7 shouldbe at the left side and not at the front asshown. The officers' "top hat" came intouse a considerable time after the enlistedmen adopted it, the officers continuing intheir bicorn certainly until well after 1805.

I have been fortunate enough to be sup-plied with Fortitudine for a number ofyears now and I say it is a most excellentspecialist publication and am very grate-ful that through the kindness of your il-lustrious Corps I am able to receive a copy.

With best wishes for the continued suc-cess of the History and Museums Division.

P. G. TilburyHornchurch, EssexUnited Kingdom

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr Tilbury 's letterlaunched an immediate, intensive searchfor material supporting the illustrations.The search proved Mr Tilbuiy absolutelycorrect and the artist wrote thanking himfor his constructive and accurate criticism.Mr Tilbury responded with a full-colorRoyal Marines Christmas card showing theaccurate uniforms of the periodanda wishthat the artist need not be "keelhauledorwhatever

VMFA- 115 MEMENTOES

I am in the final stages of writing theofficial history of VMFA-115 for the MarineCorps Historical Center. If any of yourreaders have written or photographicmaterial relating to this squadron, I wouldbe most grateful to hear from them.

Capt John C. Chapin, USMCR (Ret)Marine Corps Historical Center

Building 58, Washington Navy YardWashington, D.C. 20374-0580

HARD-TO-FIND BOOKS

I am writing to enlist your help in find-ing some out-of-print books . . . . Ithought that some of your readersmight . . . assist in my search.

11

Historical Division, Headquarters, U.S.Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., pub-lished two multi-volume sets of historiesfollowing WW II and Korea. I have threevolumes of one set and four volumes of theother. I am missing three volumes to com-plete both sets. Since I participated inboth these "wars," I am extremely interest-ed in completing these sets. The volumesI need are: History of US. Marine CorpsOperations in World War II (Vol III, Cen-tral Pacific Drive, and Vol V, Victory andOccupation) and US. Marine Corps Oper-ations in Korea (Vol I, The PusanPerimeter). . . . I have been trying to ob-tain these books for over 10 years.

Billy J. Hill806 Mitchell Road

Jacksonville, North Carolina 28540

FALLEN TREE HID O'DAY

I have read Phil [LtGen James P.] Ber-keley's letter in the fall [1985] issue of &r-titudine with more than passing interest.I too was a recent arrival in Nicaragua atthat time and had just established a oneplatoon garrison at El Sauce. My orders re-quired that I go to Esteli to pick up 27horses and I was in Esteli at the same timeEddie O'Day was there for the same pur-pose. I got my horses first and left toreturn to El Sauce. Our route followed anarrow trail over mountains and it was notlong before our 27 horses were strung outa mile or so from end to end and the ninemen of the partol scattered throughout.As we neared El Sauce the trail split witha well defined branch continuing straightahead and another branch following thetelegraph wire to the left. When I reachedthat point the leading elements were welldown the poorer trail following the wire.An old man begged me to get them backand follow the better trail and warned thatthe one we were taking was only to serv-ice the wire and was almost impassable.He actually dropped to his knees andbegged me. I saw no possibility of reas-sembling the patrol and so when he saidthat the wire led to El Sauce we continuedon down that trail. It was dark when wereached El Sauce and the town was quietand dark with not a light showing. Wefound our small garrison alerted to repela bandit attack. They had informationthat a bandit group had laid an ambushfor us on the better trail. By getting lost

we had eluded them. I think it was twodays later that O'Day was ambushed atBromaderas. (In Fortitudine it is spelledBromadros).

I was not present at the battle atBromaderas so my knowledge of it is

second-hand as told to me by Slim Chap-pell (2dLt Guy D. Chappell who had beenmy roommate at Annapolis). At the timeof the incident I believe he was atPalacaguina. He said that they heard theshooting and he took a patrol to inves-tigate. They reached the scene of the bat-tle just at daybreak and after a shortexchange of fire drove the bandit groupoff. O'Day, who had spent the night hid-ing under a fallen tree crawled out but wasso badly bitten by insects that he was notimmediately recognized. I think Slim saidthat O'Day's hair had turned white but Iam not sure of that. I saw Eddie O'Daylater and his account was much the sameas the above. I believe he told me that ban-dits sat on the fallen tree under which he

was hiding and kicked him with theirheels. He thought they were speculatingon where he was.

A year later while I was at the Battal-ion Headquaraters at Pueblo Nuevo I wasordered to take a patrol to Bromaderas todisinter the bodies and prepare them forreturn to the States. For reasons I no longerremember Lt. Harris replaced me andmade the trip along with Dr. Dickensen.The task proved to be more gruesome thanexpected as the dead had been wrappedin ponchos before burial and were onlypartially decomposed. The patrol had toremove the ponchos and bury the bodiesagain. I was glad to have missed the trip.It is my recollection that there were eightbodies to be recovered.

Slim Chappell was killed in a planecrash in the summer of 1930 when the topwing of a plane he was testing folded overthe cockpit trapping him. I accompaniedhis body to Arkansas for the funeral. His

widow gave me a blood stainedNicaraguan coin with a 30 caliber hole init; a souvenir of the Battle of Bromaderas.

Col Frank M. June, USMC (Ret)Pebble Beach, California

P.S. After writing the above I lookedthrough some old papers to see if I couldfind any reference to the incident in ques-tion. I located some fragments of old in-telligence reports of the period and in onefor March 1928 I find this entry: A native,Francisco Melendez, reported that Sandi-no personally supervised the ambushingof Lt. O'Day's patrol. Melendez was saidto have escaped from bandit captivity andwas interviewed by the CO. at Jicaro onMarch 14. He supplied almost a full pageof information. Elsewhere in the samereport is an item indicating that Darailiis the main message center for Sandino.I presume this may be the Darali referredto in the Berkeley letter. El 775 LI

Historical Quiz

Some Entertaining Marinesby Reference Section, Marine Corps Historical Center

1. This famous comedian saw active duty in the Marine II and Korea, with his civilian career with the Boston Red Sox.Corps during World War II as a sea-going Marine and as alight-antiaircraft gun crewman, and participated in the oc-cupation of Japan.

7. This well-known talk-show co-host served as a Marinefighter pilot in World War II, and was later called back toactive duty during the Korean War, flying over 85 combat

2. This well-known actor, a PFC who fought on Kwajaleinand Eniwetok, and was later wounded in action on Saipan

missions, which earned him six Air Medals. He is now acolonel, USMCR (Ret).

inJune 1944, relived the past by portraying a sergeant in theWorld War II movie epic "The Big Red One."

8. This renowned motion picture star, a former sergeant inthe Marine Corps Reserve, was assigned duty as a motion pic-

3. This 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 10,000-meterrun, a former first lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve,continued competing in track, representing the Corps untilhe left active duty in June 1965.

ture production technician, and later helped in the stagingand broadcasting of the "Halls of Montezuma" radio program

.originating at Marine Corps Base, San Diego, during WorldWar II.

4. This successful humor columnist served with the MarineCorps from 1942-1945, stationed for almost two years onEniwetok in the Pacific where he edited his outfit's newspaper.

9. This popular screen personality, remembered for his roleas the cocky American POW in "The Great Escape," enlistedin the Marine Corps in 1947 and served as a rifleman andan amtrac crewman.

5. Although he eventually attained the rank of "captain,"this favorite children's television personality served as an en-listed Marine during World War

10. This former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion wasa member of the Marine boxing team at Camp Lejeune andhis last fight as a Marine earned him an Olympic Gold Me-

6. This member of the Baseball Hall of Fame alternated hisdal in June 1976.

Marine Corps service as an aviator and jet pilot in World War (Answers on page 30)

12

Visiting Marine Vets Share Memories of World War I

e were at the foot of this hillThis plane came over and

right on its tail was a German .

He [the German] came back. . . . We hadtracer bullets and we got credit for knock-ing this plane down . . . . It must havehad 1500 holes in it . . . . Everybody wasfiring at it. . . . The pilot was living, waswounded, but the fellow with him [therear gunner] was dead."

These reminiscences of the St. Mihieloffensive in 1918 were part of a recent oralhistory interview with John C. Ashworthduring his visit to the Marine CorpsHistorical Center. Another former Marinewho recalls the "Great War" is James H,Draucker. Both Mr. Ashworth and Mr.Draucker were interviewed as part of theMuseum's current effort to collect addi-tional papers and memorabilia of WorldWar I.

M r. Ashworth became a Marine on 7June 1917 when he was sworn in at

the Marine Barracks in Portsmouth, Vir-ginia. Only the top four of his group of34 were selected for the Marines; the re-mainder were sent to the Army and Navy.He received his basic training at the Ports-mouth Naval Base and found time to playbaseball against teams from visiting bat-tleships. His recruit company was sent toQuantico to form a machine gun compa-ny, but the men were given leave until bar-racks and firing ranges were completed.

Following training at Quantico withLewis machine guns, Ashworth and the

by j Michael MillerCurator of Personal Papers

the company shipped to France on boardthe converted German steamer Dekalb.After duty in a quiet sector and trainingon the French Hotchkiss machine gun, hiscompany of the 4th Marine Brigade wentinto action at Belleau Wood to halt theGerman advance.

Ashworth entered the Wood on 11 Juneand came out on 23 June: "We got intoposition . . . looking off to Bouresches

This place stunk to beat hell .

And come to find out there were a cou-ple of dead Germans right at the gun po-sition . . . . [We had] six hours of it. Theirheads would knock about when we fired."

His next combat came at Soissons andin the St. Mihiel offensive. His machinegun crew would follow the main assaultwaves, and Ashworth added, "You werevery good if you could follow at a hundredyards . . . . If they needed help, theywould call. . . . They would look [at you]a little cockeyed because they knew thata machine gun would draw fire."

Q n 19 July 1918, his 77th MachineGun Company was supporting Maj

John "The Hard" Hughes' battalion of the6th Marines. The battalion was to berelieved by the French, but a violent dis-cussion took place between the Americaninterpreter and a relieving French officer.Hughes stepped in, and asked what wasbeing said. The interpreter attempted toexplain the delay, but, according to Ash-worth, Hughes walked up to the Frenchofficer and said, "Look! Germans! La! La!La!", pointing with his finger, and turnedaround and said, "Come on!", and with-drew, leaving the Frenchman behind.

Ashworth ended his combat in theMeuse-Argonne. On 1 November, "A fogsettled in . . . . It was bad . . . . All ofa sudden we heard these things rattling

It was men coming to deliver rations.

Former Marine John C. Ashworth is second from right in this photograph taken out-side Belleau Wood on 2 June 1918, as Cpl Ashworth 's machine gun crew awaited theGerman advance. Retreating French soldiers pause behind the Marines for the picture.

On a tour of the Museum, John C. Ashworth points to the Indian headpatch he woreas a member of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion in France in 1918. Mr Ashworth sawcombat in the battles of Belleau Wood Soissons, St. Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne.

That was the last we saw until November8. We were living on our backs."

Following the end of the war, hereturned to the United States and parad-ed in New York City. Ashworth then wentto Quantico to be reviewed by PresidentWoodrow Wilson, and was dischargedshortly thereafter.

Former Marine James H. Draucker'sservice in World War I was quite

different from Mr. Ashworth's. Mr.

Draucker belonged to the 11th Regimentof the 5th Marine Brigade and arrived inFrance too late to see combat. However,Draucker's service is representative of thethousands of Marines who never reachedthe front, serving in possibly lessglamorous but vital duty during the war.

Draucker was first stationed at theBrooklyn Navy Yard and then went to theWashington Navy Yard. While stationedin Washington he served with GySgt DanDaly. Draucker remembered one morninginspection, when "Daly made a sharp leftturn and walked right up to me withininches. His steel grey eyes met mine likea laser beam. He said, 'What is yourname?' I replied [and] he then said, 'Youruniform freshly pressed?' I answered, 'Nosir, I wore it on liberty last evening for onlytwo hours.' He replied immediately, 'Ser-geant, put this man on the restriction list.

No shore liberty for two weeks.' I

remarked, 'Jeepers! I'm mixed in with 70men and he could spot a little thing likethat!'

He then shipped to France after join-ing the 11th Marines at Quantico. Theregiment was at sea for two weeks beforereaching France, when Draucker and hiscomrades happily put their feet back ondry land. There followed a period of train-ing for combat and orders to go to thefront when the armistice was declared. The11th and 13th Marines were shipped toBrest, France, prior to returning homewhere they were greeted by the com-mander of the 5th Brigade, BGen Smed-Icy D. Butler.

G en Butler formed both regimentsinto a large field and "gave a

20-minute speech and wished us bonvoyage. He said, 'Let's all sing the Marines'Hymn.' With no music, he started it byusing his megaphone. After about aminute and a half, he shouted, 'Stop, stop,stop!' Believe me, there was a sudden si-lence all over the field. Then for fourminutes he just looked at us. He thenraised the megaphone to his mouth andsaid very firmly, 'Men, I know I can't makeyou sing the Marines' Hymn, but I canmake you wish you had. So, let's try itagain.' And he started it again. When itwas completed, he said, 'That was much

14

better. Thank you! Bon voyage!' He thenordered the brigade dismissed."

Before Draucker returned home, he wasassigned as a guard at Camp Pontanezen,which served as a departure point forAmerican units preparing for the returnvoyage. He volunteered for unlimited dutyin the 15th Separate Battalion, the lastcombat unit to leave Europe. Drauckerprotected supply posts from black markethijackers and guarded military prisoners.One of his most interesting assignmentswas at the so-called "brides camp:' official-ly known as the separation camp, whereAmericans and their foreign brides wereprocessed before returning home. Thecamp was divided down the middle by afence and Draucker recalled, "The menwere quartered on one side, the womenon the other. . . . I walked along the fenceseveral times each night to be sure thatregulations were obeyed. My reward fordoing my duty was to be cussed at, plead-ed with, cajoled, etc."

On 10 December 1919, Draucker left forthe United States after serving 15 monthsoverseas and reached Philadelphia at theend of a 16-day journey. His battalion wasdisbanded on 30 December at Quanticobut he continued to serve in the MarineCorps until 12 April 1920 when his dis-charge was approved.

Both Mr. Draucker and Mr. Ashworthare proud of their service in the MarineCorps. Places, names, and events are freshin their memories despite the years thathave gone by. Eli 775EJ

W/orld Var I Marine James H. Drauckercomments on his donation of personaldocuments for curator]. Michael Miller

Men of Company E, 11th Regiment, 5th Marine Brigade, pose together at Montier-chaume, France, in 1918. First on the left is Pvt James H. Draucke Pvt Draucker earlierserved at the Washington Navy Yard under the supervision of GySgt Dan Daly.

New Art for Collection Portrays Marines in the Arctic

by Ma] Donnaj Neary, USMCR

T wo years ago, in March 1984, I wasassigned a period of active duty with

the 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade(MAB) as a combat artist, to record visual-ly the events and people participating inNATO exercise Teamwork 84. This opera-tion was held above the Arctic Circle inthe Troms region of northern Norway.

Since then, I have finished a selectionof watercolors and other pieces for the Ma-rine Corps Art Collection illustrating therigors of a Marine exercise in a landscapeof deep snow and unaccustomed wet cold.

The 4th MAB, commanded by BGenNorman H. Smith, consisted of Regimen-tal Landing Team 2, Marine AircraftGroup 14, and Brigade Service SupportGroup 4, and was joined by Marine Reser-vists of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines. Al-lied military forces from the UnitedKingdom, the Netherlands, West Germa-ny, Italy, Luxembourg, Canada, and Nor- "Teamwork"for white-clad US. Marines in this recollection is pulling a well packedway also participated. 'polk" through the frozen landscape of the Troms region of northern Norway.

A Norwegian Home Guard soldier from the Refresher Training sturdy horses, native to Norway, can be fitted with round snowCamp at Maukstad Moen near S4old, leads a pack horse from shoes made of iron and bamboo, and employed to pull sledgesthe Horse Transport Company over the snow-covered hills. These loaded with supplies into otherwise inaccessible terrain.

15

Aboard an Air Force Cl 41 departing for Norway from Cherry tines Co/John]. Hilgers and lstLt Norma S. Stewart steal somePoint, North Carolina, via Goose Bay, Maj Neary watched Ma- sleep before the long days ahead in the Arctic-weather exercise.

An Italian soldier from a unit assigned to Two warmly dressed German paratroopers proceed towards an assembly area whereact as the opp osing force, acknowledges his they will join allied troops for training jumps over the frigid Norwegian terrain fromcapture by a US. Marine in white parka a German UH-ID helicopter. Marine air was present for the exercise from MAG-14.and snowshoes from 4th MAB's Regimen-tal Landing Team 2, during an actionfought three days after the landing at icyRossfjord Other Marine units participat-ing in the NATO exercise were fromBrigade Service Support Group 4 and theReserve's 1st Battalion, 25th Marines.

16

Wishing to be as mobile as possiblethroughout the exercise, I kept my materi-als for sketching and drawing to a mini-mum, depending heavily on my cameraand notebooks. When in the field, I car-ried a canvas map case, which was ideallysuited to hold several sketchbooks and avariety of pens and pencils, and a 35mmcamera with telephoto and wide-anglelenses. After the first few days I also car-ried candy bars and trail mix, as I was mov-ing around considerably and missed manymeals.

T he Allied Press Information Center(APIC) in Bardu, about 15 miles

south of Bardufoss Airfield and 50 milesfrom the landing beaches at Rossfjord andBalsfjord, was my home base. This wasideal for my purposes, as all press represen-tatives reported in and out of the APIC,and their transportation to and from thecamps and exercise area were arrangedthere. Participating NATO nations hadmilitary representatives assigned to the

APIC who were invaluable in assisting mein visiting the various allied camps.

There were times when I found myselfnot well equipped for the task at hand,such as when I had the opportunity onshort notice to visit a Norwegian Armyunit that was camped high in the moun-tains north of Skjold.

In the woods, away from roads, and insnow that was more than waist deep, theunit was engaged in a mock battle. Theymoved about easily, being equipped withsnow shoes. I had none with me, but wasdetermined to do my best to follow theirmovements. Being fairly light in weight,I was able to take two or three steps at atime before falling through the thin,frozen crust into the soft snow below—arather exhausting and inefficient way totravel. The Norwegian soldiers were verymuch "at home" in the snow, and mostindividual tents were cozy and warm, hav-ing "split-level floors" dug into the snow,and reindeer-skin rugs (provided by theoccupants).

T he ground was totally snow-coveredthroughout the exercise, and it con-

tinued to snow periodically, but theweather often was warmer than expected.This, unfortunately, kept the snow on theground fairly wet, exposing troops to a lotof cold moisture. Several times, the vehi-cle in which I was riding was comman-deered by corpsmen in order to transportMarines suffering from hypothermia tofield hospitals or back to ships.

In the days prior to the combined U.S.-U.K.-Netherlands landing, I visited theNorwegian Refresher Training Camp atMaukstad Moen; the Allied CommandEurope Mobile Force (AMF) camps madeup of units from Canada, West Germany,Italy, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom,and the United States; the German fieldhospital; the U.S. Marines' camp near RedBeach; and the landing beaches along theMalengen, Bals, and Ross fjords beforetheir scenic isolation was disrupted by thecacophony of activity that accompaniedwhat was then the largest combined land-ing exercise in Arctic zones. Eli 775L1

A Norwegian Home Guard soldier from Brigade North carriesa machine gun. Both soldier and weapon have snowshoes.

17

Having removed his pack and web gear during a rest in the wetsnow, a Marine provides a dry writing surface for a buddy.

Remodeled, Expanded Air-Ground Museum Reopensby Col Brooke Nihart, USMC (Ret)

Deputy Director for Museums

A s this issue of Fortitudine hits thestreets the Marine Corps Air-

Ground Museum at Brown Field, Quan-tico, will open for the season after its 1 De-cember to 30 March winter hibernation.

These pages [Fortitudine, Fall1981-Winter 1982; Fall 1984] have alreadytold of our plans designed to upgrade theformer Aviation Museum to the Air-Ground Museum, presenting the MarineCorps' development of air-ground teamdoctrine, organization, and operations. In-deed, on 1 April 1985, when the muse-um opened for the season, it wasredesignated with the new title. Sufficientground weapons and equipment had beenintegrated into the aircraft exhibits tojustify the change.

The acquisition and restoration of ad-ditional aircraft and major pieces ofground equipment demanded their addi-tion to the exhibit hangars. While the"World War II" hangar with its memora-ble Grummans, Douglas SBD, Corsairs,and others remained open, the "EarlyYears, 1912-1940" hangar was closed inorder that new exhibits incorporating ad-ditional gear might be installed.

F irst, the buildings within a building,familiar to past visitors and contain-

ing exhibits on early Marine aviationheroes and an art gallery, were removed tomake more room for floor exhibits.Changes comprised three elements: an is-land containing the crew-served and ar-tillery weapons of the 1900-1914 period;

a second island with World War I artilleryand vehicles on one side and a 1939 pre-production Amtrac on the other; and anastro-turf section suggesting a grass airstripwith an N2S Stearman "Yellow Peril"training plane and crew-served weapons ofthe 1930s.

Around the periphery of the hangar,false walls provide space for inset cases con-taining mannequins in Marine uniformsand personnel equipment presenting Ma-rines of the 1900-1940 period.

Aside from these major additions, the"Early Years" hangar looks much the sameas before, at first glance. The yellow shel-lacked fabric and bamboo framework ofthe 1912 Curtiss A-2 Pusher is in its oldplace, as are the DH-4 DeHavillandfighter-bomber and Thomas-Morse Scout,all to the right front as the visitor enters.The 1917 Renault-type light tank remainsth same as before and the FB-5 and F4B-3Boeing biplane fighters are still at the han-gar's north end.

But follow me for a quick tour: As weenter from the parking area on the

right of a short hall we see a thematicphoto-montage with the title, "On landand sea and air." The photographs showevery activity of the Marine expeditionaryforces of the early 1900s—machine guns,

Stearman N2S training biplane at north end of "Early Years" hangar was used in thelate 193 Os into W/orld rvar II. M1AJ 75mm pack howitzer is seen under the right wing.

• In the Ai on LandandSea. . . "theme panel at entrance to the "Early Years"hangar at the Marine Corps Air- Ground Museum at Quantico, shows all arms andservices of the Corps at work in the 1912-1940 period Museum opens on 1 April.

18

artillery, aircraft, tanks, motorcycles, bal-loons, motor transport — a preview of theequipment we will see inside shown in ac-tual use. On the left, we can examine pho-tographs of Brown Field, site of today'sAir-Ground Museum, in the 1920s and30s, and Quantico's introduction to fixedwing aircraft in the 1890s as Professor Lan-gley of the Smithsonian Institution con-ducted unmanned flights from a bargeanchored nearby in the Potomac.

Immediately ahead is the first islandwhere we can observe in a natural settingof beach rocks and jungle foliage weaponsof the early 1900s. Included are a M1901.30-caliber Gatling gun, a Navy M18763-inch breech-loading rifle landing gun,and a M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun,the Marine Corps' first, on light wooden-spoked cart wheels.

Gatling guns had been used by theCorps from shortly after the Civil War, the3-inch landing gun saw service at Guan-tanamo Bay in 1898, while the M1895machine gun provided essential firepow-er in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Cap-tions give details on the weapons anddescribe how they were employed in thecombined arms team of the time.

Continuing counter-clockwise aroundthe island we view the M1909 Benet-

Mercie machine rifle, the Corps' first lightmachine gun; a tripod-mounted M1895;and a M1902 3-inch gun, all of the typeused by Marines of the Advanced BaseForce of 1913 and at the Vera Cruz inter-

vention of 1914. Captions tell of their usein the Advance Base Force and of the firstair-ground team in the Culebra maneu-vers of 1913-1914. Overhead hangs a wickerballoon basket and its Marine observer ofWorld War I and the 1920s, when obser-vation balloons were based at Quantico.

On the wall opposite the M1909 is a casewith a pre-World War I Marine aviator inflight gear of the period and another casewith a Marine ground officer of the sameperiod as he may have looked during the1912 Nicaragua intervention.

Walking up the gentle ramp that cir-cles the Curtiss Pusher we come to a case

containing a Marine on a jungle trail ofa Caribbean island or a Central Americanbanana republic. Speaking to the BananaWars of the 1920s, the case and its cap-tions also pay a tribute to the Marines' bestfriend of the period, the M1903 Spring-field rifle. Further around the ramp wecome to another case with a USMCR(F),a World War I woman Marine, in aWashington office scene of the time.

W e are now at the DH-4DeHavilland where a cutaway

Vee-12 Liberty engine, and fragments ofa Marine DH-4 which crashed in theShenandoah Valley during the 1924

maneuvers, have been added to theexhibit.

Passing the Tommy-Morse Scout we seeon the left a World War I Marine display-ing photographs of Marines and theirweapons of that war. Next to him on theisland will be a M1917 Ford Model "T"military truck of the type SgtMaj JohnQuick loaded with ammunition and en-gineer tools and drove madly to succor LtClifton B. Cates' 96th Company atBouresches close by Belleau Wood.

A free-standing case displays themachine guns used by Marines in Franceand beyond that on the second island canbe seen an M1897 French 75mm gun andits prime mover, when six horses were notused, an M1917 Holt 5-ton tractor. TheM1917 6-ton tank completes the WorldWar I ensemble. Captions explain com-bined arms and air-ground organizationand tactics of that war.

(Continued on page 22)

French 75mm gun M1897 is of the type which supported World War I Marines in Franceand continued in use by Corps artillery into the 193 Os. The water wagon filled Ma-rines' canteens and radiators during the Central American Banana Wars of the 1920s.

Holt 5-ton tractor M1917 was made by the forerunner of the Caterpillar Tractor Com-pany andarmored by the York Safe Company. It served as W"WI artillery prime mover

19

Q n 18 December 1946, President Harry S. Trumanawarded Donald Roebling the Medal of Merit. The ci-

tation read:

Donald Roebling, for exceptionally meritoriousconduct in the performance of outstanding serv-ices to the United States. Mr. Roebling con-ceived, developed, and perfected an amphibianvehicle capable of traversing both land andwater, presented it to the Government of theUnited States and released it for manufacturewithout compensation. Conceived originally inDecember 1934, for humanitarian purposes as ameans of carrying emergency supplies to inun-dated and isolated areas in Florida during thehurricane seasons, and completed after five yearsof intensive research, tireless effort, and tremen-dous personal expense, his fourth model, the"Roebling Alligator" is the forerunner of all am-phibian tractors constructed for the Navy, theMarines, the Army, and Lend-Lease. The Roe-bling Amphibian Tractor contributed to the suc-cess of our armed forces in Africa, and inaddition, rendered valuable service during land-ings on the Pacific Ocean Islands, and with itsunique ability to negotiate surf and beach ter-rain, moved supplies and equipment to other-wise inaccessible locations, broke trails throughthe jungle and formed pontoons for temporarybridges permitting the passage of troops. Mr.Roebling's unselfish devotion to the perfecting ofan effective war weapon, released withoutthought of benefit to himself, was a vital and in-spiring contribution to the defense of hiscountry.

The Roebling Alligator Amphibian Tractor that will be ondisplay in the renovated and redesigned "Early Years" exhibitsat the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum was the last of theprivately owned and fabricated Roebling Alligators. It is be-lieved to be "Alligator 3," designed in 1939 and completedin May 1940. It was powered by a 95-horsepower Mercury V-8engine and incorporated a number of improvements, designedin response to problems and experience gained with Roebling'searlier Alligators.

Alligator trademark copyrighted in 1938, here reproducedfrom a Roebling Company helmet in the Museum's collection.

Roebling 'Alligator 3" amphibian tractor is seen at Clearwate,Florida, in about 1940. The 'Alligators" were developed be-ginning in 1934, to cope with hurricane season flooding.

T he "fourth model" mentioned in the presidential cita-tion was a Roebling Amphibian Tractor contracted and

purchased by the Navy's Bureau of Ships and completed inOctober 1940. This vehicle was actually the first government(or U.S. military) Alligator. It was very similar to "Alligator3," and often has been confused with it mistakenly in publi-cations. It was powered by a 120-horsepower Lincoln-Zephyrengine and incorporated a number of changes suggested bymembers of the Marine Corps Equipment Board, especiallyBGen Emile P. Moses and Maj Ernest E. Linsert. This pur-chased Alligator amphibian tractor was first shipped to Quan-tico and later to the Caribbean for testing.

What is probably "Alligator 3" was donated to the MarineCorps by Roebling's widow in the mid-1960s. It had been heldby the Inspector-Instructor staff of the 4th Assault Amphib-ian Battalion at Tampa, Florida. In November 1984 it wasshipped to the Museum at Quantico at the request of LtGenDavid M. Twomey, Commanding General of the Marine Corps

(Continued on page 35)

Preliminaty cleaning of 'Alligator 3" isperformedby Ron Gayof the Museum's Restoration Section. W"orst damage proba-bly was from "exfoliation "apparent along the vziible supports.

LVT's Direct Ancestor Ready for 'Early Years' Exhibitby Anthony W/ayne Tommell

Curator of Ordnance and Heavy Equ4'ment

20

Q n 19 December 1985 a long-bed tractor-trailer rolledinto the Marine Corps Development and Education

Command (MCDEC), at Quantico, Virginia. It carried an in-teresting if ominous-looking cargo, a Soviet model BRDM-2armored reconnaissance vehicle. The cargo was delivered tothe Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum, where the Curatorof Ordnance and Heavy Equipment inspected the vehicle andwith members of the Restoration Section carefully unloadedit from the trailer.

The BRDM is a particularly important addition to theMuseum's vehicle collection because it comes with a direct,detailed, and historically important provenance, with recentMarine Corps history. It is one of two such vehicles given tothe Government of Grenada by an agreement dated 9 Febru-ary 1981 with the Soviet Union and delivered in the same year.It was captured on or about mid-morning of 26 October 1983by an element of the 2d Assault Amphibian Vehicle (AAV)Battalion of the 2d Marine Division in Operation Urgent Furyon the island.

The details of the taking of the BRDM were revealed inconversations with a number of Marine participants. Inter-views with LtCol Ray L. Smith, commander of Battalion Land-ing Team (BLT) 2d Battalion, 8th Marines; lstLt John E.Holloway, leader of the 4th Platoon, Company A, 2d AssaultAmphibian Vehicle Battalion; and SSgt Allan F. Chase, amember of the 4th Platoon, developed the following scenario:A dismounted patrol from the 4th Platoon discovered theBRDM around 0100 in a rural area just west of the villageof D'Arbeau. D'Arbeau is near the western edge of Queen'sPark Race Course, designated Landing Zone Racetrack, andnorth of the capital city of St. George's.

T he interviewed Marines think that the vehicle had beenabandoned by its crew. Near it were found small piles

of Grenadan People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) uniformsand weapons. Also near the BRDM was a Toyota "Land Cruis-er:' which according to information given to Lt Holloway by

Marine JstLtJohn E. Holloway of the 2dAssault AmphibianBattalion poses in front of the Soviet BRDM-2 on Grenada.

The BRDM in storage at Quantico ii being preparedfor even-tual exhibition at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum.

a local farmer, was used by the crew for transportation to andfrom town every night. In the armored vehicle itself werefound an operator's manual in English and a letter, by a mem-ber of the crew, explaining why he had an accident with aPRA truck. A Marine guard was posted and the decision wasmade to move the vehicle back to the LZ since efforts to startit on site had not proven successful. With SSgt Chase steer-ing the BRDM, a LVTP-7 towed it back.

Cp1 T J. Anderson and other members of 4th Platoonworked on the Soviet vehicle and got it running. Tak-

ing a ride in the BRDM became an interesting and educa-tional diversion for other Marines. To make sure that no tragicmistake occurred the Marines marked "USMC" in large whiteletters on both sides. Lt Holloway then asked to take the ve-hicle along with his unit to Lebanon in hopes of eventuallybringing it back to Camp Lejeune. LtCol Smith felt this was"a reasonable request at the time" and approved it, but ad-vised Holloway that the intelligence agencies might end upwith the vehicle once it got "stateside." The BRDM was load-ed onto the tank deck of the 1ST USS Manitowoc as elementsof the 8th Marines embarked on 31 October at Grand MalBay. The vehicle remained on board the Manitowoc duringthe deployment in Lebanon. It was unloaded and reloadedonce on the return trip to the United States, at Rota, Spain.But as LtCol Smith had predicted, the BRDM was "se-questered" by Defense Department intelligence agencies uponits arrival in the U.S. and shipped to Aberdeen ProvingGrounds in Maryland.

At a meeting held at the Defense Intelligence Agency on5 July 1984 it was decided to hold the BRDM at Aberdeenfor about one year, after which it would be shipped to theAir-Ground Museum. After some delays the vehicle eventu-ally arrived at Quantico for preparation for display in theMuseum.

Soviet Vehicle in Collection Thanks to 2d AAV Bnby Anthony IVayne Tommell

Curator of Ordnance and Heavy Equipment

21

(Continued from page 19)

I n the wall near the tank is a case tell-ing the story of a 192 Os Marine activi-

ty analogous to today's anti-terroristdeployments: guarding the U.S. mailsfrom a wave of robberies. The scene is theinside of a railway post office car lookingout on the station mail platform. The Ma-rine in the car is armed with a M1897trench shotgun and surrounded by mailbags.

The two Boeing biplane fighters are inthe familiar positions but between themare exhibited the heavy weapons of the1920s and 30s, the M1917 Browning heavymachine gun and the 81mm Stokes-Brandt mortar. Facing these exhibits onthe "grass" is the Stearman trainer. Withit are displayed an Ml 75mm pack howit-zer and the Browning Automatic Rifle andThompson Sub-machine Gun, made fa-mous by Marines in Nicaragua. We thinkwe have a lead on a 1918 motorcycle andside car, the jeep of World War 1, which,if we get it, will be added to the "grass."As before, captions explain developmentof combined arms and air-ground organi-zation and tactics of the day.

We have circled the hangar and are ap-proaching the point where we entered.Here on the second gravelled island isDonald Roebling's 1939 all-aluminum Al-ligator, his third experimental model,which immediately led to the LVT-1 am-phibian tractor of 1941. On the wall op-posite, in photographs and captions, is thestory of the air-ground team in amphibi-ous operations and the development ofthis doctrine in the 1930s.

Ending this era is an exhibit on theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor and theMarine participation in its defense.

T he World War II hangar is undergo-ing a similar upgrading but is not as

far advanced. In addition to aircraft- andaviation-related exhibits, we now includeexhibits on the defense battalions, onseagoing Marine detachments, an LVT-1amtrac, a ¼-ton truck or Jeep, a 75mmpack howitzer in its World War II

pneumatic-tired configuration, and caseexhibits on the Marine rifleman and Navyhospital corpsman.

Planned for early addition to the han-gar are exhibits that speak to groundreconnaissance, antitank, infantry support-ing weapons, parachute Marines, and ar-tillery support. Undergoing restoration is

Display recreates Marine officer's quartersduring the 1912 Nicaragua campaign.Swords were used only for ceremony.

an M3 armored scout car that our divi-sion scout companies used in 1941-1942until we got involved in the jungles. In-terpretation with it will talk about thereconnaissance mission in general and howit was conducted from submarines andrubber boats in the Pacific island war.

Also undergoing restoration at this timeare an M3 37mm antitank gun and apneumatic-tired French 75mm gun of thetype also used by regimental weaponscompanies early in the war. A 2.36-inchrocket launcher or "bazooka" along withphotographs of the weapons in action andthe story of the few actions againstJapanese tanks will round out this exhibit.

A case exhibit of Marine parachute unitswill be placed in the hangar close to theexit where our recently restored R4D trans-port is on exhibit. We plan to restore ourFrench Schneider M1917 15 5mm howitzerof the type used by 4th Battalion, 11th Ma-rines, on Guadalcanal and exhibit it alongwith a 10 5mm howitzer when one can bereleased to us from war reserve. Thesepieces will be used to dramatize the sto-ries of artillery support, naval gunfire sup-port, and fire support coordination toldby photographs and narrative captions. Aswith the Early Years hangar, infantry-supporting weapons—machine guns andmortars—will be exhibited and their roleexplained.

22

A third hangar at Brown Field requiresextensive repair work to the hangar

doors and other components before beingopened to the public. This work has beenscheduled by base public works but a datefor completion has not been set. Mean-while, many aircraft and vehicles havebeen restored for exhibit in this hangar,which is to be titled, "Jets, Helicopters,and the Korean War." Planning for the lay-out and interpretation of these exhibits isalready underway.

Aircraft already restored and awaitingdisplay include a Sikorsky HO3S, firsthelicopter used by the Marine Corps. Alarge model of the Marine Corps' firsttransport helicopter, the Piasecki I-IRP, willbe exhibited at the entrance. A Bell HIT.and Sikorsky HRS used extensively in theKorean War also will be exhibited. TheCorps' first carrier-capable jet, a McDon-nell FH-1 Phantom fighter, will be ex-hibited, as well as a Grumman F9F-3Panther, which flew with VMF-311 inKorea. VMO-6 will be represented by anOE observation and liaison plane. Theenemy will be represented by a MiG-15 re-cently arrived from China.

Most of the ground weapons used inKorea were the same as in World War II.However, exhibited will be such newweapons as the 75mm recoilless rifle,4.2-inch mortar, and the 3.5-inch rocketlauncher. An M26 tank of the type usedby the 1st Tank Battalion for the first yearof the war will be exhibited outside thehangar as will be a Douglas AD-S attackaircraft and F3D night fighter.

Story lines will cover development ofthe helicopter and the Marine Corps'

vertical envelopment concept, jet engineand jet aircraft development, and close airsupport and the air-ground team in Korea.

The Air-Ground Museum is in a fortui-tous location next to the Officer Candi-dates School and on the same base withthe various officers' command and staffcourses. Illustrating and dramatizing, asit does, the development of combinedarms and air-ground team organization,doctrine, and tactics, it can form an in-structional supplement to the schools' con-sideration of these subjects. How and whywe did things in the past and how changesevolved can provide a better understand-ing of today's solutions and of coping withtomorrow's problems. LJ1775L

Language Officers Recall Combat Roles in the Pacific

by Co/John C. Erskine, USMCR (Ret)

T he World War II mobilization ofpersons with special skills in

Japanese language was commemorated bya gathering of former Marines this pastfall. Participants numbered 12 officers and11 others including wives and guests. Fiveformer 5th Marine Division officers wereresponsible for organizing the reunion:John M. Farrior; John K. McLean; EdwardG. Seidensticker; J. Owen Zurhellen, Jr.;and myself. All five saw action at Iwo Jimaand participated in the occupation of Sase-bo and surrounding regions of Kyushu,Japan.

Other Japanese-language officerspresent had varying duty assignments. Eu-gene P. Boardman participated in theGuadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, and Tiniancampaigns with elements of the 2d Ma-rine Division. Jerome L. Elswit was on thestaff of the III Marine Amphibious Corpsin Guam, Okinawa, and North China.Thomas N. Flournoy accompanied navalgunfire elements conducting the pre-invasion bombing of Iwo and later wentashore there with the V Marine Amphibi-

ous Corps staff. Richard A. Gard servedon the staff of the Commander, Amphibi-ous Forces South Pacific in the Solomons.ReedJ. Irvine joined the 2d Marine Divi-sion in time for the Saipan and Tinianlandings and stayed with the divisionthrough the occupation of SouthernKyushu. Glenn W. Nelson served with the6th Marine Division on Okinawa and inNorth China, and with the 2d Marine Di-vision in Sasebo. Walter J. Rockler parti-cipated with the 4th Marine Division inthe Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwooperations.

Boardman, Erskine, and Gard werepart of the group of 13 Japanese-

language specialists commissioned in theMarine Corps Reserve in the spring andearly summer of 1941. On being called toactive duty they were ordered to MarineBarracks, Pearl Harbor, where they wereenrolled in a sub-rosa language class at theUniversity of Hawaii. Particular attentionwas given there to schooling in militaryvocabulary to supplement proficiencies ac-

quired by some through residence inJapan or Asian-language studies at Ameri-can universities.

The nine other linguists at the reunionhad been recruited after the outbreak ofwar by the U.S. Navy, primarily on the ba-sis of exceptional intellectual qualifications(e.g., membership in Phi Beta Kappascholastic society), and given 14 monthsof intensive schooling in Japanese at theNavy's Japanese-language school at theUniversity of Colorado (Boulder). Most ofthem held enlisted ratings before commis-sioning; all had volunteered for assign-ment to the Marine Corps.

The scarcity of persons skilled inJapanese in those days was such that med-ical authorities waived many otherwise dis-qualifying physical conditions: height,weight, eyesight, and chest expansion.Badly needed to accompany combattroops, most of these Marines were givena minimum of military orientation, letalone survival skills.

In the peacetime years before tensionsmounted between Japan and the Unit-

ed States, the Marine Corps was contentto have one officer engaged in Japanese-language study while serving as an assis-tant naval attache in Tokyo along with ahandful of Regular Navy officer languagestudents. In the period 1939-1941, two Ma-rine officers were so assigned. In Decem-ber 1941, these two plus a former languagestudent with a limited-duty status, andanother, engaged in helping to decipherJapanese naval communications and there-fore unable to serve where there was a riskof capture, were the only Regulars withJapanese language qualifications in theMarine Corps.

About 1,500 Reservists were broughtinto the naval service and trained asJapanese-language officers during the waryears. Of these, 150 were Marines, 70 wereWaves, and 20 were Navy Regulars. About150 Marine Corps enlisted personnel werealso trained asJapanese-linguists in schoolsat Camp Elliot and Camp Lejeune and inother schools set up by line organizationsin the field. For the most part, theseschools were the result of the efforts of Ian-

At the language officers' reunion are, from left in back row: Glenn V Nelson; Ed-ward G. Seidensticker; j Owen Zurhellen, Jr.; Eugene P Boardman; Jerome H. Els-wit; Thomas N. Flournoy; and IValterJ. Rockler From left in the front row: ReedjIrvine; John C. Erskine; John K. McLean; John M. Farrior; and Richard A. Gard

23

guage officers to maintain their own skillsand of the curiosity and initiative of en-listed Marines. A few line officers under-took this training and received appropriateMOS designations. Still others with natur-al linguistic talents became able to han-dle the movement of prisoners of war.Japanese-Americans were not taken intothe Marines but constituted the mainstrength of the U.S. Army's Japanese lan-guage capabilities in the Pacific. Armyteams — composed usually of an officerand ten or so enlisted Nisei— augmentedMarine language sections in combat oper-ations.

Organizationally, Marine linguists were,with a few exceptions, considered intelli-gence personnel. Their chief functionswere: translation of captured documents;interrogation of prisoners of war and cap-tured civilians; identification of capturedenemy equipment; authorization for therelease of souvenirs; and, on occasion,transcription, translation, and interpreta-tion of intercepted tactical communica-tions. Typically significant to Marinecommanders was information on the lo-cation and nature of fortified positions,troop strength, order of battle, and logis-tic capabilities. Of interest to higherauthorities were such items as capturedsignal code books and reports of airfieldsite surveys.

In the occupation ofJapan, linguists ac-companying Marine landing forces

facilitated the establishment of control ofportions of Kyushu beyond the beach-head, assisted civil affairs officers in themovement and billeting of troops, and inother housekeeping and security matters.They also assisted in liaison with Japaneseauthorities, support of public informationprograms, and in the handling of all kindsof interaction with Japanese individuals.

Two Marine Japanese-language officerswere killed in action. The first was lstLtRalph Gory, who left the U.S. Foreign Serv-ice to join the Marines. Assigned to the1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, hewas a member of a patrol led by the G-2,LtCol Frank Goettge, which was am-bushed on 12 August 1942 while nearinga rendezvous with what was reported, bya POW, to be a large body of starvingJapanese who wanted to surrender. Lessthan a week later (16 August), 2dLt Ger-ald P. Holtom, language officer with the2d Marine Raider Battalion, was hit by a

sniper during the raid on Makin Island.Wounds received in action at Peleliu,

Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa earnedPurple Heart medals for five Marine lan-guage officers. One of these, Ray Luthy,lost a leg at Iwo. Another, William Brown,suffered an unusual injury—a child cap-tive he was carrying out of a cave on Sai-pan bit him on the abdomen.

A lthough he died a few years ago,many language officers recall Capt

Sherwood "Pappy" Moran, more than 50years old at the time of his service as aninterrogator on Guadalcanal. His languageskills had come incidental to his employ-ment as a YMCA worker in pre-warJapan.

TanslatingJapanese official documents,personal letters, and diaries gave intelli-gence officers insights into Japanese soci-ety and culture. In subsequent years, manylinguists followed careers growing out ofthese experiences. Taking the twelve at-tending the reunion, two spent longcareers in the foreign service, four becamefederal employees, one became a lawyer,another a business affairs analyst, and stillanother a banker. Academe claimed onefor his entire career, two more for majorparts of their lives. One of the latter, Ed-

24

ward Seidensticker, who was in charge ofthe 5th Division translation group on Iwo,became a renowned translator forJapanesenovelists, among them Yasunari Kawabata,winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature.

The acknowledged expert on Japaneselanguage activities associated with theNavy and the Marine Corps is Capt RogerPineau, USNR (Ret), a product of theBoulder school. Pineau remained on ac-tive duty after the war and assisted RAdmSamuel Eliot Morison, the Navy's histori-an for the Pacific War. Pineau's last assign-ment was as Director of the U.S. NavyMuseum at the Washington Navy Yard.Most recently he collaborated with JohnCostello, author of The Pacific Uir, tocomplete a book begun by the late RAdmEddie Layton, Pacific Fleet flag intelli-gence officer for Admirals Kimmel andNimitz. Layton was a Japanese languagespecialist. The book, And I Us There:Pearl Harbor and Midway — Breaking theSecrets, was a Book of the Month Club al-ternate selection for December 1985.Pineau is now assembling materials for abook on the Navy Department's JapaneseLanguage program in World War II, andseeking contact with former participantsand observers. L11775E]

Instructional panel prep ared by the R-2 Section of the 27th Marines in 1944 recom-mended some language to use in capturing Japanese prisoners: "TE W/O AGERO!KOTCHI KOl!" (The prisoner is told to hold his hands up and to come forward)

In Memoriam

Island War Planner, Former History Director Dies

LTGEN JOHN CRAWFORD MCQUEEN,USMC (RET), who once headed the Ma-rine Corps historical program, died at theage of 86 on 7 December 1985 at his homein Menlo Park, California. He was cremat-ed and his ashes were to be scattered atsea. A memorial service was held for himon 9 December.

A native of Carroliton, Missouri, heclaimed Colorado Springs, Colorado, ashis home. He was a member of the NavalAcademy Class of 1921, was commissioneda Marine second lieutenant thatJune, andattended Basic School. In the late 1920s,he served in Haiti, commanded thedetachment on the Cleveland, and servedin Nicaragua with the Guardia Nacional.In 1936 he was commander of the detach-ment on the recently commissioned Quin-cy, which was assigned to evacuateAmerican citizens and foreign nationalsfrom Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

In the late 1930s, Maj McQueen, withCapt Verne McCaul as his pilot, spent sixweeks flying along the east coast belowNorfolk looking for a suitable area tohouse a Marine training base. They recom-mended the area around New River andJacksonville, North Carolina. Their recom-mendation was evaluated and adopted,and both received Letters of Commenda-tion for their efforts in locating the site.

Maj McQueen was ordered to Londonas an observer in 1940, and witnessed the

LtGen John C. Mc Queen

by Benis M. FrankHead Oral History Section

massive bombing of London and its out-skirts by the Nazis. He consulted with theBritish about amphibious operations andobserved the training practices and areasof the Royal Marines. Reporting back toHeadquarters Marine Corps, LtColMcQueen was assigned to the Division ofPlans and Policies and again became in-volved with the selection of a Marine train-ing site, this time on the west coast. Herecommended the Rancho Santa Margar-ita area as suitable, and it was later chos-en as the location for Camp Pendleton.

His next assignment was to Amphibi-ous Forces, Pacific Fleet, as a force intelli-gence officer. While in this billet, he wasa member of the Joint Planning Staff forthe Attu and Kiska operations, and par-ticipated in their capture. When V Am-phibious Corps set up its headquarters atPearl Harbor, Col McQueen was designat-ed operations officer and participated inthe planning for and conduct of opera-tions in the Marshalls and Marianas. Heremained G-3 when VAC became FleetMarine Force, Pacific, under LtGen Hol-land M. Smith.

In November 1944, Col McQueenjoined the newly organized 6th Marine Di-vision at Guadalcanal prior to the 1945operation against Okinawa, in which hetook part. He went to North China withthe division to accept the surrender of theJapanese forces in Tsingtao, and then wastransferred to Little Creek, Virginia, to be-come chief of staff of Troop Training Unit,Atlantic.

Upon promotion to brigadier general in1950, he was transferred once again toHeadquarters Marine Corps to becomeDirector of Information, Recruiting, andHistory. It was under his direction that the1st Provisional Historical Platoon was or-ganized and its ranks filled with Reserveofficers who were also professional histori-ans called to active duty and assigned tohistorical teams with both the 1st MarineAircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Divisionin Korea.

In 1952, Gen McQueen became theDirector of Reserve and two years later as-sumed command of the Marine Corps

25

Recruit Depot, San Diego. His last activeduty assignment was as Chief of the Mili-tary Assistance Advisory Group to theNetherlands in the Hague.

Gen McQueen retired on 1 July 1958and was advanced to lieutenant general onthe retired list for having been decoratedin combat.

BGEN ARCHIE E. O'NEILL, USMC(RET), died at his home in Columbia,South Carolina, on l6January 1986, at theage of 81. He was appointed to the NavalAcademy from Williams, West Virginia,and was a member of the Class of 1927.During his career, he commanded the Ma-rine detachments on the UYyoming andAugusta and the 5th Artillery Group atSan Diego. He served in Nicaragua andwas at Midway when World War II brokeout. He participated in the Central Solo-mons campaign and in the retaking ofGuam. Gen O'Neill retired on 1 July1957. He was buried on 18 January at theGreenlawn Memorial Cemetery in Colum-bia, South Carolina.

Then-ColArchie E. O'Neill in 1955

BGEN ELLIcIIT E. BARD, USMC (RET),

a veteran Marine aviator, died at the ageof 81 on 6 December 1985 in a convales-cent hospital in Monterey, California. Bornin Nome, Alaska, in 1905, he later attend-ed the University of Washington. He wascommissioned a Marine second lieutenantand appointed a naval aviator when he

received his wings following completion offlight training in 1929. Gen Bard com-manded a variety of aviation units duringhis career and served in World War IIwhere he logged over 80 combat missions.He also served in the Korean War as chiefof staff of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.Gen Bard was buried at Golden Gate Na-tional Cemetery in San Bruno, California,on 13 December 1985.

Then-Col Elliott E. Bard in 1956

LTC0L JACK T Ku, USMC (RFr), the21st Director of the U.S. Marine Band,1974-1979, died of cancer on 18 January1986 at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He wasburied with full military honors at Arling-ton National Cemetery on 22 January1986.

LtCol Kline was born in Appleton, Wis-consin, and raised in louisville, Kentucky,where he was educated. He studied musicat the University of Louisville, where hereceived his degree. He served in WorldWar II with the U.S. Army 79th InfantryDivision, and before joining the MarineBand, played with the Louisville Sympho-ny. He began his career with the band in1947 as a clarinetist and saxophonist, wasappointed assistant conductor, and com-missioned in 1968. He assumed director-ship of the band six years later. As a bassclarinetist, saxophonist, and director, heperformed before Presidents from HarryS. Truman to James E. Carter. After hisretirement, he remained active as a guest

26

conductor, singing with church choirs, andtranscribing band music. LtCol Kline wasa member of the American BandmastersAssociation, and a director of both theMilitary Order of the Carabao and of theGridiron Club. Eli 775 El

Then-i stLt Jack T Kline in 1968

Memoir Describes Spectacular Okinawa Attackby j Michael Miller

Curator of Personal Papers

After the New Georgia campaign anda trip home, Donner joined the 11th Ma-rines then in the Russell Islands for train-ing for the invasion of Okinawa. Fullyhalf the manuscript details this periodof preparation and ensuing combat in1945 when Donner served as a forward

Then-Lt Donnor was subject of Pacijicisland snapshot during World War II.

M emoirs penned in 1946 by MajChristopher S. Donnor, USMC

(Ret), are a notable recent addition tothe Marine Corps Personal Papers Col-lection. Maj Donnor writes of WorldWar II experiences in the Pacific. He firstserved with the 9th Defense Battalion inthe Central Solomons campaign andlater with the 11th Marines on Okina-Wa. The 114-page memoir begins inApril 1943 and closes with the writer'sreturn to San Diego in 1945.

The account of the Central Solomonslandings is a detailed view of a littlestudied although crucial Pacific cam-paign. "Now the earth began to vibratewith blasts," Donner wrote of the firstJapanese air attack, "Above the sound ofthe firing came the high scream ofplanes diving, and bullets smacked intothe palms over our heads. Others strafedthe L.S.T's fifty yards from us . . . . Oneof our boys was last seen running witha powder charge in his arms. No tracewas ever found of him though it couldbe estimated where a large bomb hadcarried him to earth."

artillery observer, first attached to theArmy and then to various units of the1st Marine Division. His account of thefighting on the Shun line is detailed andgraphic.

He remembers one attack when a"great wave of Marines sprang to theirfeet from the grass and moved forward,10 or 15 feet separating each man. Theyblazed away in front of them with riflesand B.A.R.s. Thirty yards behind them,covering the breadth of the valley,another wave appeared, and thenanother. The attack was in force, bat-talion in column. Up ahead dive bom-bers and fighters helped prepare the way

Suddenly, I had the feeling that Iwas a kid again sitting in a movie like'The Big Parade,' and having a greatthrill from the spectacle. It did thrillme."

Maj Donner's memoir now becomesone of the many primary sources in thecollection, providing color and detail tosupplement official reports, that allowshistorians to present a well balancedview of Marine Corps history.

Center Treated to Call by Real Iwo Jima Flag Raiserby Danny]. Crawford

Head; Reference Section

I th been suggested — here at the Ma-rine Corps Historical Center — that a

society might be formed of "Iwo Jima FlagRaisers and Chesty Puller's Jeep Drivers."Reference historians cringe when theyreceive another letter or phone call froma former Marine who, overlooked for 40years, now wants to set the record straighton his participation in the flag raising onMount Suribachi. BGen Simmons has saidthat "if all those persons were really up onSuribachi raising flags it must have beena veritable flag pageant!"

Understandably, when I received an in-tercom call last fall announcing that "anIwo Jima flag raiser" was on his way up toour office I was skeptical. My suspicionswere allayed, however, when I met Mr.Charles W. Lindberg and his wife.

Mr. Lindberg was born at Grand Forks,North Dakota, on 26 June 1920. After en-listing at Seattle, Washington, in January1942, he trained at the Marine recruitdepot at San Diego before going to thePacific.

Cpl Charles W Lindberg, then 24, in 1945carrieda flame thrower with Company E,28th Marines. He took part in raising thefirst hag atop Iwo Jima '.c Mount Suribachiand earned a Silver Star Medal for bravery.

A 24-year-old corporal who was a com-bat veteran of the Guadalcanal and Bou-gainville campaigns, Lindberg watched theintense bombardment of Iwo Jima butrealized that the landing at Red BeachOne would be anything but easy. "TheJaps had the whole beach zeroed in. Mostof the fire was coming from Suribachi," herecalled. "Suribachi was easy to take; it wasgetting there that was so hard."

Surrounding Mount Suribachi werecliffs, tunnels, mines, booby traps,

and ravines. The hostile terrain proved tobe as tough an enemy as the Japanese whowere firmly entrenched on the mountain.

Cpl Lindberg carried a flame throwerwith Company E, 28th Marines, 5th Ma-rine Division on Iwo Jima from 19 Febru-ary to 1 March 1945. As a member of thefirst combat patrol to scale Mount Sur-ibachi he took his flame thrower up thesteep slopes and assisted in destroying theoccupants of the many caves found in therim of the volcano. For his heroism hereceived the Silver Star Medal and his ci-tation reads in part:

Repeatedly exposing himself tohostile grenades and machine-

27

gun fire in order that he mightreach and neutralize enemy pill-boxes at the base of Mount Sur-ibachi, Corporal Lindbergcourageously approached withinten or fifteen yards of the em-placements before discharging hisweapon, thereby assuring the an-nihilation of the enemy and thesuccessful completion of his pla-toon's mission. While engaged inan attack on hostile cave posi-tions on March 1, he fearlesslyexposed himself to accurate ene-my fire and was subsequentlywounded and evacuated.

Mr. and Mrs. Lindberg spent the firsthour of their visit to the Center in theReference Section carefully reviewing thefiles we hold on the battle for Iwo Jimaand those on the flag raising. Althoughdozens of visitors look at those files eachyear, I was apprehensive seeing an honest-to-goodness flag raiser scrutinize thematerial.

Mr. Lindberg gently reminisced as hereviewed the articles, newspaper clippings,photographs, and other items. I gave hima copy of our pamphlet, The United States

Mr Lindberg points to himself in aphotograph in the Museum's display of Iwo Jimaflag-raising items, which also gave him his first look at the Missoula flag since 1945.

Marines on Iwo Jima: The Battle and theFlag Raising, and told him how popularthis pamphlet has been, with nearly15,000 copies distributed over the past 20years. The pamphlet, incidentally, detailsboth flag raisings on Iwo Jima and lists thenames of all participants.

W e then went down to the Museumfor a look at the Iwo Jima exhibit,

through the eyes of one of the few Marinesstill living who witnessed the events atopSuribachi on 23 February 1945. Mr. Lind-berg's platoon had been sent up themountain under the command of lstLtHarold G. Schrier with orders to climb tothe summit, secure the crater, and raisethe 28-by-54-inch flag from the attacktransport Missoula. Sgt Louis R. Lowery, a

Leatherneck magazine photographer,joined the patrol. Shortly before 1030, theplatoon reached the lip of the crater,found a long piece of pipe and fixed theflag to the pole. As the flag was plantedby Cpl Lindberg and his fellow Marines,Inwery snapped a series of photographs.Below, troops cheered, ships blew hornsand whistles, and soon the American peo-ple would hear of the event.

Looking at the Museum's exhibit, Mr.Lindberg pointed at several of the photo-graphs, identified his Marine comrades,and amplified on the details. He alsoshowed the easy way to identify himselfin the series of pictures — part of the in-dex finger on his left hand is missing froman earlier injury. As his attention shiftedto the flag he helped to raise more than

four decades ago, we were struck by the no-tion that it was the first time he had seenthe banner since it flew atop Mount Sur-ibachi.

I asked Mr. Lindberg if he might con-sider coming back to the Center for an oralhistory interview. He agreed to return thenext day for a meeting with oral historianBenis M. Frank. Mr. Lindberg also sent usadditional information from his home inRichfield, Minnesota, for our referencefiles.

The photograph of Mr. Lindberg look-ing for cave entrances at the Suribachicrater rim which accompanies this articlealso came to us from Mr. Lindberg, andhas been added to the historic photo file.

Eli 775E

Reserve Historical Unit Report

Field Historian Provided for 2d MAB in Exerciseby LtCol Cyril fr Moyher USMCR

M aj RonaldJ. Brown, USMCR, a member of MobilizationTraining Unit (History) DC-7, participated in the 2d Ma-

rine Amphibious Brigade's Command Post Exercise 1-85 at CampPendleton, California, from 10 to 24 August 1985. Maj Brownwas assigned as the MAB field historian and tasked with thepreparation of the historical reports and the testing of the MTU'sprovisional standing operating procedure for field historians.

The CPX scenario called for the 2d MAB to act as a MaritimePrepositioning Ships (MPS)-equipped follow-on force landingin the Persian Gulf area, and to reinforce the amphibious land-ing of another MAB. In the second phase of the exercise, thetwo staffs combined to form a MAE staff.

Working out of the Combat Operations Center, Maj Brownmaintained a historical journal which he is currently using towrite a narrative of the exercise as if it had been an actual com-bat operation. He also recorded approximately 18 hours of oralhistory interviews, most of which were conducted under fieldconditions, and wrote narrative summaries of significant eventsand military biographies of key unit members. Further, heprovided the G-3/Operations and the G-3/Plans with informa-tion on threat doctrine, weapons, operations, and military his-tory. Because of his knowledge of the exercise, Maj Brownconducted briefings for newly arrived members of the staff andvisiting VIPs, and contributed to the exercise debriefing.

A ccording to Maj Brown, everyone benefits when a historicalofficer is added to the staff for an exercise. The Marine

Corps benefits by receiving an accurate, comprehensive recordof the events that took place. The unit benefits by getting a dedi-cated officer, responsible for the historical efforts of the unit.Finally, the individual benefits by sharpening his professional

and technical skills, thus making him better prepared for mobili-zation.

Maj Brown's participation in the exercise was deemed a suc-cess as evidenced by the numerous "spin-off' assignments re-quested by the MAB G-1, G-3, and G-5, and the 4th Divisionliaison officer. His recommendations are currently being integrat-ed into the SOP. Ei775E

Maj Brown writes at his makeshift desk at Camp Pendleton dur-ing CPX 1-85. The MTU (Hist) DC- 7 member provided sup-port as the 2d MAB field historian during the desert exercise.

28

New Books

Modern Wars. Dominate Offerings to Marine Readersby Evelyn A. Englander

Historical Center Librarian

F rom the library of the Marine CorpsHistorical. Center, recently published.

books of professional interest to Marines.These books are available from local book-stores or libraries.

Paybacks. Christopher Britton. Donald I.Fine, Inc. 317 pp;, 1985. This novel aboutthe Marine Corps in 1971 deals with Viet-nam, military justice, and the Corps' ap-proach to recruit training. It is the story ofa Marine Corps lawyer and his defense ofa drill instructor charged with the murderof a recruit from his platoon. The authorserved as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnamand as a military defense counsel. $16.95.

The Royal Marines, 1956-84. Text by Wil-liam Fowler. Color plates by Paul Hannon.Osprey Publishing, Ltd. 40 pp.' 1985. Anew volume in the Men-at-Arms series. In-cludes Suez, 1956; Cyprus, 1955-56; Adenand the Gulf Northern Ireland; and theFaildands. Also has sections on training ex-ercises and logistics and support. Illustrat-ed with color plates and black-and-whitephotographs. $5.50.

Vietnam, the War in the Air: A PictorialHistory of the US. Air Forces in the Viet-nam War: Air Force, Army, Navy and Ma-rines. Col Gene Gurney, USAF (Ret), comp.Crown Publishers, Inc. 277 pp., 1985. Thisbook is illustrated with more than 300 pho-tographs and maps. Air operations in SouthVietnam are presented in two sections:1962-1964 and 1965-1972. Also induded arechapters on the air war in North Vietnam,Army airmobility, naval air operations, Ma-rine Corps air operations, American POWs,and operation Homecoming. The chapteron Marine Corps air operations was writ-ten by LtGen Keith B. McCutcheon for theMay 1971 Naval Review. Includes index.$17.95.

The Root: The Marines in Beirut, August1982-February 1984. Eric Hammel. HarcourtBrace Jovanovich. 448 pp., 1985. An accountof the Marines' mission in Lebanon toldfrom their perspective. It details their es-calating involvement in battles fought inand around Beirut. And it presents the ter-rorist attack on the headquarters con)pound

on 23 October 1983. The book focuses onthe nearly 200 Marines interviewed by theauthor and on their reactions to the attack.$19.95.

Gallipoli 1915: Pens, Pencils and Camerasat Ur. Peter H. Liddle. Brassey's DefensePublishers. 162 pp., 1985. This year is the70th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign.The photographs, diary entries, letters, andcartoons published here show the campaignthrough "1915" eyes. The material is fromthe G2llipoli section of Peter Liddle's1914-1915 Personal Ecperience Archives.$17.50.

Uniforms of the Indo-China and VietnamWars. Leroy Thompson. Blandford Press,distributed by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.159 pp., 1984. Black-and-white and color il-lustrations and plates of the uniforms of thevarious armed forces of the Vietnam andIndo-China Wars. The chapters on the Ma-rines in Vietnam include a brief narrativeand illustrations of the U.S. Marine Corpsuniforms and insignia. $17.95.

(Also new from Blandford Press is a paper-back reprint of John Mob and MalcolmMcGregor's Uniforms of the AmericanRevolution, $6.95, and Uniforms of theNapoleonic Wars by Philip Haythornwaite.$12.95, hardcor. [Both titles distributed bySterling Publishing Co.])

Corsair: The F4U in World Jr II andKorea. Barrett Tillman. Naval InstitutePress. 219 pp., 1979. The history of the Cor-sair in World War II and Korea, includingits service with the Marine Corps. This wasa unique aircraft with bent wings, which wasa day fighter and a night fighter, a divebomber, and a reconnaisance plane, andwhich flew land-based and carrier-basedmissions. Included, too, is its use by theFrench, the Argentines, and the HonduranAir Force. Illustrated with black-and-whitephotographs. Includes list of Corsair acesand a bibliography. $17.95.

US. Navy and Marine Corps Bases, Over-seas. US. Navy and Marines Corps Bases,Domestic. Paolo E. Coletta, Editor, and K.Jack Bauer, Assistant Editor. GreenwoodPress. 2 volumes. 1985.

29

These two companion volumes describeevery Navy and Marine Corps base, everin existence, both past and present. Theyare alphabetical listings by location, giv-ing the history and function of each baseand facility. The volumes include bibliog-raphies, cross references, and general sub-ject indexes with appendixes listing thebase by major function, by geographicallocation, and by date. $95.00, volume ondomestic bases; $75.00 volume on overseasbases; or $170.00 set of two volumes.

The Naval War of 1812: A DocumentaryHistory, Volume I. William S. Dudley,editor; MichaelJ. Crawford, associate edi-tor. Department of the Navy, NavalHistorical Center. 714 pp. 1985.

The first of a three-volume documen-tary history of the War of 1812, this bookbegins with an introduction summarizingthe status of the American Navy from1775-1805 and concludes with the USSConstitution's victory over HMS Java inDecember 1812. The two succeedingvolumes will cover 1813 and 1814-1815,respectively. The documents were select-ed to create an overall picture of the wareffort. They are arranged chronologicallywith an explanatory text to introduce in-dividual documents or groups of docu-ments. For sale by Superintendent ofDocuments, Government Printing Office,$34.00.

Maneuver Warfare Handbook. William S.Lind. Westview Press, Inc. 133 pp. 1985.

Mr. Lind's presentation of his theorieson maneuver warfare; a bibliography ofsuggested readings; a series of lecturesdelivered by Marine Col Michael D. Wylyat Amphibious Warfare School during the1981-82 academic year. $16.50.

Falklands Commando. Capt HughMcManners, R.M. William Kimber & Co.,Ltd. 224 pp. 1984.

Falklands Commando is a descriptionof the Falkiands War as seen through theeyes of the commander of a five-man navalgunfire forward observer team. CaptMcManners takes the reader through hiswar, from his team's first initial attachment

to the Royal Marines Special Boat Squa-dron (SBS) until the Argentine surrenderand his return to the United Kingdomaboard the Canberra. The book shows therole played by naval gunfire support, es-pecially that played by the men who spot-ted for the guns. Illustrated withblack-and-white photographs, all buteight taken by the author. (Copies of thebook available from Articles of War, Ltd.,7101 North Ashland Ave., Chicago, Illinois60626. (312) 338-7171. $15.50

To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam Warand its Aftermath in the Words of Ameri-cans and Southeast Asians. Al Santoli.Dutton. 367 pp. 1985.

This volume details the experiences of48 Americans and Southeast Asians dur-ing and after the Vietnam War. This se-cond volume of oral histories includes notonly the military, but also foreign aid ad-visors, revolutionaries, journalists, diplo-mats, relief workers, and refugees. $17.95.

American Interuention in Grenada: TheImplications of Operation "Urgent Fury."Peter M. Dunn and Bruce W, Watson, edi-tors. Westview Press. 185 pp. 1985.

Chapters in this volume cover the logicof the military option, media coverage ofthe invasion, lessons of the interventionand its aftermath. Included also is a chap-

The Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1973: An Anthology andAnnotated Bibliography.Revision includes articles from the Marine Corps Gazette, Naval InstituteProceedings, and Naval Review covering operations through 1975. Individu-als may obtain copies from Superintendent of Documents, stock number008-055-00168-4, price $22.00.

PRINT SERIES

United States Marine Corps Uniforms 1983. By Maj Donna J. Neary, USMCR.May be requisitioned by Marine Corps units from MCLB, Albany (PCN100-000010-00). Individuals may obtain copies from the Superintendentof Documents, catalog number D214.16/UN3/983, price $14.00.

HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISIONHEADQUARTERS, U.S. MARINE CORPS

BUILDING 58, WASHINGTON NAVY YARDWASHINGTON, D.C. 20374-0580

3°

ter on amphibious aspects of the opera-tion and a chronology of events. $15.00.

R ecent reprints of interest includethese titles from the Marine Corps

Association Heritage Library Series (origi-nal editions of these books are occasion-ally available through out-of-print booksources):

US. Marines andAmphibious WarfarebyJ. Isely and P. Crowl. $11.95.

Old Gimlet Eye: The Adventures ofSmedley Butler by Lowell Thomas. $8.95.

Reminiscences of a Marine by MajGenJohn A. I.ejeune. $8.95.

Victory at High Tide by Col R. D.Heinl, Jr. $18.95.

Battle for Guadalcanal by BGen SamuelB. Griffith. $18.95.

A reprint of a World War II monograph

The Recapture of Guam by Maj 0. R.Lodge (available from Marine Corps As-sociation Bookservice or Marine CorpsHistorical Foundation Gift Shop). $13.90.

Two World War II division histories arealso available:

The Old Breed: A History of the FirstMarine Division in World War II byGeorge McMillan. Reprinted by ZengerPublishing Company. $35.00.

History of the Sixth Marine Division byBevan Cass. Reprinted by UniversityMicrofilms, Inc. $78.50. L1I1775E

Historical Quiz

Some Entertaining Marines(Answers to questions on page 12)

1. Jonathan Winters.

2. Lee Marvin.

3. Billy Mills.

4. Art Buchwald.

5. "Captain Kangaroo" (Bob Keeshan).

6. Ted Williams.

7. Ed McMahon

8. Glenn Ford.

9. (Terrance) Steve McQueen.

10. Leon Spinks.

is:

New Publications of theHistory and Museums Division

The following publications are available on request to the History and MuseumsDivision by Marine Corps units, research libraries, and military schools.

OCCASIONAL PAPERS

Alligators, Buffaloes, and Bushmasters: The History of the Development of theLVT Through World War II. (1975) By Maj Alfred D. Bailey, USMCR (Ret).

A new title published by the History and Museums Division. This is areproduction of a master of arts thesis in history at the University of Iowa.

Vietnam Historians Workshop: Plenary Session. (1983)

Vietnam Revisited: Conversations with William D. Broyles, Jr. (1985)

Bibliography on Khe Sanb Marine Participation. (1985) By LtCdr Ray W. Stubbe,ChC, USNR (Ret).

REVISION

Base Facilities Named to Honor Vietnam War Heroes

byRobert V AquiinaAssistant Head; Reference Section

R egular readers of Fortitudine willrecall that a section of the Spring

1983 issue was devot6dio an update of theMarine Corps Commemorative NamingProgram. The purpose of this program isto recognize and pay tribute to distin-guished and heroic deceased Marines, bynaming bases, camps, streets, buildings,and other facilities in their honor. To date,more than 650 facilities are so named, andmore than 450 Marines recognized.

The Reference Section of the Historyand Museums Division, which administersthe Commemorative Naming Program,has noticed an increasing interest amongMarine Corps commands in Marine can-didate names from the Vietnam War.From 1983 to the present, over 30 deceasedVietnam-era Marines have been honoredby a commemorative naming. Eleven Ma-rine Corps commands, from The BasicSchool at Quantico, Virginia, to MarineBarracks, Hawaii, have used the names ofthese Marines in dedicating streets, clubs,classrooms, and barracks, along with atheater and a chapel.

Several Marine commands have re-quested names of Marines from the

local command area who were killed in ac-

non during the Vietnam War for use inmultiple street or road namings, whileother Marine facilities have used thenames of Medal of Honor recipients forspecific namings of buildings, barracks,and clubs. Included among the com-memorative naming actions approved bythe Commandant of the Marine Corps arethe following requests to honor Medal ofHonor recipients from the Vietnam War:

From the Commanding General, MarineCorps Base, Camp Smedley D. Butler. Toname a new bachelor enlisted quarters atCamp Schwab in honor of PFC DouglasE. Dickey, USMC.

A native of Greenville, Ohio, PFC Dick-ey was serving as a rifleman with Compa-ny C, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, when hewas killed in action on 26 March 1967while participating in Operation BeaconHill 1. PFC Dickey was posthumouslyawarded the Medal of Honor for sacrific-ing his life by throwing himself upon agrenade to save the lives of fellow mem-bers of his platoon.

From the Commanding General, MarineCorps Base, Camp Pendleton: To name alanding craft air cushion complex (LCAC)

access road in honor of Col Donald G.Cook, USMC:

A native of Brooklyn, New York, ColCook was awarded the Medal of Honorposthumously for conspicuous gallantryand intrepidity at the risk of his own lifewhile interned as a prisoner of war by theViet Cong from 31 December 1964 untilhis death in captivity on 5 December1967. His "personal valor and exceptionalspirit of loyalty in the face of almost cer-tain death reflected the highest creditupon himself, the Marine Corps, and theUnited States Naval Service."

From the Commanding Offlcer The Bas-ic School, Marine Corps Development andEducation Command; Quantico: To namethe new enlisted men r club at Camp Bar-rett in honor of PFC Oscar P Austin,USMC:

A native of Phoenix, Arizona, PFCAustin was serving as an assistant machinegunner with Company E, 2d Battalion,7th Marines, when he was killed in actionon 23 February 1969 near Da Nang,Republic of Vietnam. PFC Austin wasposthumously awarded the Medal ofHonor for heroism in sacrificing his ownlife to save the life of a fellow Marine.

EJ1775L11

Cal Donald G. Cook, USMC PFC Douglas E. Dickey, USMC

31

PFC Oscar P Austin, USMC

Fhght Lines

Douglas R4D-6/C-47J Skytrainby Maj Frank M. Batha, Jr., USMC

Aviation Historian

T he Skytrain was a military version ofthe Douglas DC-3, a twin-engine,

low-wing transport airplane that first flewin 1935. Larger, faster, and more econom-icalto operate than any previous transport,by 1938 the DC-3 was the aircraft of firstchoice with America's major airlines.

When war broke out in Europe, theDC-3 was the only sizable multi-engineaircraft actually in production which hadall of the "bugs" worked out. Douglas

geared up for mass production of theplane's military versions, the Army C-47and the Navy R4D, but because of thehigher priority given to production of tac-tical aircraft, Navy orders for the transportwere not delivered until early 1942.

The first Marine Corps unit to receiveR4Ds for operational use was Marine Util-ity Squadron 252 (VMJ-252) stationed atEwa airfield on the Hawaiian island ofOahu. Two R4D-ls arrived from the main-

land on 30 May 1942, and two days laterthe first Marine R4D combat support mis-sion was carried out when Capt Albert S.Munsch piloted an overloaded Skytrain onan unesconed, long-distance, emergencyresupply flight to Midway Island.

A erial logistics support and the R4Dbecame increasingly important as

the United States took the offensive. InNovember 1942, during the Guadalcanalcampaign, the South Pacific Combat AirTransport Command (SCAT) was estab-lished from resources primarily assignedto Marine Aircraft Group 25. Using R4Dsfrom VMJs -253, -152, and -153, as well asC-47s from the Army's 13th Troop Carri-er Squadron, SCAT carried high prioritycargo and replacements into the combatzone. Equally important, SCAT aircraftwere used as aerial ambulances for the firstlarge-scale evacuation of the wounded.SCAT transports were also used as naviga-tional escorts for fighter planes being fer-ried on long, overwater transits. InNovember 1943, the Central Pacific Theat-er's counterpart to SCAT was established.Designated the Central Pacific CombatAir Transport Service (CenCATS), it wassupported with R4Ds from VMJ-252 and-353. In March 1944 CenCATS was suc-ceeded by the Transport Air Group (TAG).At some point during the war, the R4Dpicked up the famous "Gooney Bird" nick-name, which it shared with the comical al-batross found on many Pacific islands.

After World War II, Marine transportsquadrons were reequipped with larger air-craft, but R4Ds continued to serve asgroup, wing, and station aircraft.

In 1962 all Navy aircraft were redesig-nated to comply with the existing Air

Force system. Skytrain configurations toand including the R4D-6 were redesignat-ed as part of the C-47 series, eg., C-47H(formerly R4D-5), C-47J (formerlyR4D-6). "Flight Lines" coverage of theSkytrain series will conclude with a discus-sion of the R4D-8/C-117D in the nextissue. L11775LJ

The R4D-6on display at the Air-Ground Museum has been partially refurbished us-ing funds donated by Marine Air Group 25 and SCAT Veterans of W'orld W"ar II, Inc.

Technical Data

As depicted for a loaded cargo transport mission in the R4D-1,-3,-5 and -6airplane characteristics and performance chart issued 1 August 1945.

Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company, Santa Monica, California.Type: Troop and cargo transport.Accommodation: Crew of three and up to 27 troops.Power Plant: Two 1,200-h.p. Pratt & Whitney R-1830-90C engines.Dimensions: Span, 95 ft.; Length, 64 ft., 5½ in.; Height, 24 ft., 8 in.Weights: Empty, 17,571 lbs.; Gross, 29,000 lbs.Performance: Max. speed, 213 m.p.h. at sea level; Service ceiling, 24,700 ft.;

Range, 1,610 st. mi.; Climb at sea level, 1,060 ft. per mm.Features: The R4D-6 configuration incorporated a wide cargo door, astrodome,

24-volt electrical system, and provisions for litters.

32

Korean Wir Chronology

November-December 1950by Robert V Aquiina

Assistant Head, Reference Section

F ollowing the successful conclusion of the Inchon-Seoul campaign, the 1st Marine Division was relieved by

Eighth Army elements and proceeded by sea around the Koreanpeninsula to seize Wonsan. The collapse of North Koreanresistance was so rapid, however, that resurgent Republic of Koreaforces took the port city without a fight. Subsequently, the 1stMarine Division made an unopposed landing on 26 October.While the 1st Marines were assigned patrolling and blocking mis-sions in the vicinity of Wonsan, the 5th and 7th Marines wereordered by X Corps to proceed north to Hamhung, in prepara-tion for a major United Nations drive towards the Yalu Riverand Manchurian border.

Although considerable intelligence placed large numbers ofChinese Communist forces across the Yalu River, Allied Head-quarters in Tokyo stalwartly minimized the enemy presence, andordered the 1st Marine Division to continue its northwest drivetowards the Chosin Reservoir, the site of an important hydro-electric plant. Shortly after midnight on 3 November, the 7thMarines had the first large-scale action of American forces withinvading Chinese Communists. In four days of fierce fighting,the 7th Marines soundly defeated the 124th Chinese CommunistDivision, and on 10 November entered Koto-ri. By 15 Novem-ber, the regiment reached Hagaru-ri, followed in turn by the5th and 1st Marines, as MajGen Oliver P. Smith brought his 1stMarine Division regiments together along the main supply routefrom Hamhung to the southern tip of the Chosin Reservoir.

Cold and weary troops of the 7th Marines pause to rest in sub-zero temperatures near Hagaru-ri, during their heroic breakoutfrom the Chosin Reservoir combat zone on 6 December 1950.

33

A heavy snowfall and extreme cold complicates the movementof the hard-pressed 1st Marine Division from Koto-ri towardsHamhung andthe port of Hungnam on 8 December 1950. En-gineers destroyed all supplies which could not be carried

On the march south from Koto-ri on 10 December 1950, acolumn of 1st Division Marines ignores a roadblock arranged bythe enemy, who earlier blew up a concrete power plant andbridge across a gorge. Marines erected their own bridge.

On 24 November, Gen Douglas MacArthur launched simul-taneous offensives of the Eighth Army in western Korea and XCorps in the northeast. MajGen Smith's 1st Marine Divisionwould proceed westward to form the northern arm of the EighthArmy's pincer envelopment. The earlier warnings of massiveChinese intervention now proved all too true. On 25 Novem-ber, Chinese forces struck the Eighth Army's right wing, andeffectively brought the Allied advance to a halt. The 5th and7th Marines, having dutifully advanced westwards to Yudam-niin support of the Eighth Army offensive, were struck by threeChinese divisions on the night of 27 November. AdditionalChinese divisions cut the supply route held by the 1st Marines,while other elements struck at Company F, 7th Marines, hold-ing the vital Toktong Pass.

At beleaguered Hagaru-ri, MajGen Smith opened his com-mand post on 28 November to direct operations. The 5th Ma-rines was ordered to hold its position, while the 7th Marineswas assigned the grim task of clearing the zone from Yudam-nito Hagaru-ri. At Koto-ri, Col Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller was or-dered by MajGen Smith to put together a relief column to aidthe hard-pressed defenders of Hagaru-ri. The resulting Thsk ForceDrysdale, composed of the 41 Independent Commando, RoyalMarines, with elements of U.S. Marine and Army units, arrivedon 29 November in Hagaru-ri after nine days of bitter fightingalong the road from Koto-ri. The situation at Hagaru-ri was bynow almost desperate; heavy night attacks by bugle-blowingChinese were repulsed on 28 and 30 November. From 2 to 4December the 5th and 7th Marines battled through to Hagaru-ri over a twisting 14-mile mountain road in sub-zero tempera-tures, relieving Company F which still held tenaciously to Tok-tong Pass. At Hagaru-ri, the reunited 1st Marine Division wassupplied by air-drops from the Air Force's Combat Cargo Com-mand and transports of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. More than

Meeting on Christmas Day 1950 are Marine leaders in Korea,from left, LtColRaymondL. Murray, 5th Marines Commander;MajGen Oliver P Smith, 1st Division Commanding General;and Col Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller 1st Marines Commander.

In one of a frequently published set of photographs from theChosin Reseruoir campaign, a burst offlame and billows of smokeattest to the accuracy of close air support from Marine F4U-5Corsairs at Hagaru-ri for advancing units of the 1st Division.

34

Col Homer L. Litzenberg, Jr., led the 7th Marines' heroicresistance to attack by elements of three Chinese divisions.

4,000 casualties were evacuated by C-47s from an improvisedairstrip.

On the morning of 6 December, the breakout southward fromHagaru-ri to Koto-ri began in earnest with Marine engineersblowing up supplies that could not be transported. On 8 De-cember the 1st Marine Division with the Royal Marines 41st Com-mando and elements of the U.S. Army's 7th Division left Koto-riand advanced towards Hamhung and Hungnam. The alliedcolumn reached Hungnam on 11 December and by the 15ththe last elements of the 1st Marine Division sailed from Hung-nam for Pusan.

The Chosin Reservoir campaign had cost the 1st Marine Divi-sion over 4,000 battle casualties. Fourteen Marines were award-ed Medals of Honor for heroism during the advance to theChosin Reservoir and subsequent breakout during November andDecember 1950; seven of the medals were awarded posthumous-ly. The Chinese plan to destroy the 1st Marine Division lay shat-tered in the frozen landscape of northwest Korea, along withan estimated 25,000 dead Chinese. "Bloodied but unbowed,"the 1st Marine Division unloaded at Pusan harbor for a well-earned Christmas rest. Eli 775L1

35

Over frozen scrub, 1st Marine Division troops and tanks fan outto guard the flanks of the division's main column on the roadbetween Koto-ri and Hagaru-ri in early December 1950, duringthe arduous breakout from the Chosin Reservoir battle zone.

.LVT's 'Grandpappy' On Display(Continued from page 20)

Development and Education Command. Working with GenTwomey's staff, particularly Col (now BGen) Gail M. Reals,the Museum has placed the vehicle inside Building No. 72,the "Early Years" exhibit hangar, thus providing improved con-ditions for long-range preservation.

Exposure to the elements and the salt air at Tampa was ac-celerating the deterioration of the Alligator. When it arrivedat Quantico an inspection revealed a great natural loss (mas-sive exfoliation) of material from the duraluminum hull. TheRestoration Section of the Museum was assigned to do a par-tial restoration in an attempt to preserve as much of the origi-nal fabric of the vehicle as possible. The section spent thebetter part of four months at the task.

Work on '4lligator 3" by the Museum's Restoration Sectionover four months is evident in the replacement supports alongthe early LVT's side. Most of the original metal remains.

The "amphibian tractor" of the Navy Department's Bureauof Ships, the famous 'fourth model" of the Alligator was pho-tographed undergoing tests in 1940 in the Caribbean Sea.

A s work progressed, research by the Museum's Curatorof Ordnance and Heavy Equipment revealed that "Al-

ligator 3" appeared to have undergone a number of modifi-cations subsequent to its period of historical significance(1940-1941). The original Mercury engine had been replaced.There were changes to the drive train and transmission, whichwere probably done when the engine was replaced. Papersand blueprints of Donald Roebling in the Personal Papers Col-lection at the Marine Corps Historical Center also revealedthat the cleated tracks of the vehicle may have been modi-fied in 1946 or 1947, possibly by Roebling himself.

Research continues on "Alligator 3" and with the reopen-ing of the Air-Ground Museum this year, visitors will be ableto view this historically significant amphibian tractor, a"Grandpappy" of every Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) in theworld.

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVYHEADQUARTERS U.S. MARINE CORPS

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20380

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

36

BULK RATE

POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

USMC

PERMIT NO. G-63

Gen Thomas Biography to be Written by Col Millett

T he Marine Corps Historical Foundation has announcedan agreement with Col Allan R. Millett, USMCR, to

write a biography of the late Gen Gerald C. Thomas, USMC.Col Millett is the author of three major historical works: TheGeneral: Robert L. Bullard and Officership in the U.S. Army,1881-1925; Semper Fidelis: A History of the U.S. MarineCorps; and (with Peter Maslowski) For the Common Defense:A Military History of the United States.

Even before his death, the Marine Corps Historical Foun-dation had a biography of Gen Thomas as an objective. ColAngus Fraser was at work on such a biography, under a smallgrant from the Foundation, until interrupted by failing healthand halted by his own death.

Gen Thomas (1894-1984), whose active service in the Ma-rine Corps spanned the years 1917 to 1958, is considered tohave been one of the best loved, most respected, and mostinfluential Marine officers of his era. His combat experienceextended from that of a sergeant at Belleau Wood to com-mand of the 1st Marine Division in Korea.

With the approval of the Thomas family, admirers of GenThomas have donated to the Foundation a sufficient fundto underwrite a scholarly biography.

Col Millett, a professor at Ohio State University and amember of the Foundation's Board of Directors, has assignedany royalties from the book to the Foundation.

LtGen Herman Nickerson, Jr., USMC (Ret)Winnebago Detachment, Marine Corps LeagueLtCol George E. Zawasky, USMC (Ret)SgtMaj C. A. "Mack" McKinney, USMC (Ret)CWO John L. Farris, USMC (Ret)Mr. John W. Turk, Jr.Mr. Marshall McV. AustinCWO Floyde 0. Schilling, USMC (Ret)MajGen Robert E. Friedrich, USMCR (Ret)Mr. William S. DwinnellMr. Paul A. FerraroMaj M. G. Carter, Jr., USMCLtCol Donald N. Rexroad, USMC (Ret)LtCol John C. Jordan, Jr., USMC (Ret)Mr. Leslie DavisLtCol Andrew J. Ley, USMCRLtCol Gardelle Lewis, USMCR (Ret)LtCol Allen E.f Weh, USMCRMr. Thomas M. Rodgers, Jr.Cot William W. Rogers, Jr., USMC (Ret)Col George M. Lhamon, USMC (Ret)LtCol Jonathan F. Abel, USMCR (Ret)MajGen Dennis J. Murphy, USMCMr. Charles D. Dickey, Jr.Mr. James L. OrrMr. Richard W. Johnson, Jr.

A s of 17 January, the Foundation has 1,080 members.Those who have joined since the listing in the Winter

1985-1986 issue of Fortitudine are:

Col Mary L. Stremlow, USMCR (Ret)Col Joseph A. Bruder, USMC (Ret)LtGen Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (Ret)

and with apologies to recent member, Maj Robert C. Sebilian,USMC (Ret), whose name was misspelled in the listing in thewinter issue.

Inquiries about the Foundation's activities may be sent tothe office at the Historical Center or calls can be made to (202)433-3914 or 433-2945.