bulletin of the marine corps historical prog1. vol 24 no 1.pdffortitijd ii bulletin of the marine...

FORTITIJD IiBULLETIN OF THE MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL PROG1.HIS1DRICAL BULLETIN VOLUME XXIV SUMMER 1994 NUMBER

EWE NEW PACIFIC WAR Th1ES ADDED 'JO 5oTh ANNWERSARY CoMMEMoRATIVE SERIES. . . WORLD WAR

II WAR CORRESPONDENT AND HIS1ORIAN BOB SHERROD REMEMBERED.. . i9Th-CENTURY MAiur NCOSwORD RESIORED 'JO FORMER LUSTER.. . IMA DETACHMENT FORMED. . . FUGHT LINES: OKHA SUICIDE BOMB

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FORTITUDINTEMotto of the United States Marine Corps in the 1812 eraHistorical Bulletin Volume XXIV Summer 1994 No. 1

This quarterly bulletin of the Marine Corps historical program is published for Marines, atthe rate of one copy for every nine on active duty, to provide education and training in theuses of military and Marine Corps history. Other interested readers may purchase single co-pies or four-issue subscriptions from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HISTORYAND MUSEUMSDIVISION

Marine Corps Historica CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

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

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

DIRECTOR

BGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)Secreta,y to the Director Mrs. Patricia E. Morgan.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Col William J. Davis, USMC

HISTORICAL BRANCH

Head: LtCol Thomas A. Richards, USMC. Hcttories Section:Mr. Benis M. Frank, Chief Historian: Dr. Jack Shulimson;Mr. Charles R. Smith: Capt John T Quinn 11, USMC. OralHistory Unit: Mr. Richard A. Long. Reference Section: Mr.Danny J. Crawford: Mr. Robert V. Aquilina; Mrs. Ann A.Ferrante: Miss Lena M. Kaljot: Mrs. Shelia Gramblin. Ar-chives: Mr. FrederickJ. Graboske; Miss AmyJ. Cantin, Per-sonal Papers: Mrs. Joyce C. Hudson, Cpl Darian E. Hines,USMC, Official Papers.

MUSEUMS BRANCH

Head/Officer-in-Charge, Air-Ground Museum, Quantico:Col Alfred J. Ponnwitz, USMC. Operations Officer CaptChristopher L. French, USMC. Museums Section: Mr.

Charles A. Wood, Chief Curator, Mr. Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas, Material History: Mr. John G. Griffiths, Ord-nance: Mr. Joseph E. Payton, SSgt Mitch Garringer, USMC,Restoration: Mr. Michael E. Starn, Aeronautics: Mr. Ronald

J. Perkins, Mt. Ronnie D. Alexander, Exhibits: Mrs. NancyF. King, Uniforms: Mrs. Jennifer L Castro, Registrar Mrs.Kathryn R. Trout, Programs Assistant. Security: SSgt HurelJ.Ward, USMC: Sgt Daryl L. Clark, USMC: Sgt Vincent L.Wright, USMC: Sgt Pete Basabe. USMC: Cpl Duward Mas-sey, USMC: CplJose Rodriguez, USMC: CplJeffreyJ. Weins,USMC: LCpl Kanaya Easley, USMC.

MARINE CORPS MUSEUM UNIT, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Exhibits: Mr. James A. Faiifax: Mr. Gordon I-kim: LLpl An-thony R. Hicks, USMC. Marine Corps Art Collection: Mr.

John T Dyer, Jr.

SUPPORT BRANCH

Head/Division Executive Officer LtCol Dave Beasley, Jr.,USMC. Editing and Design Section: Mr. Robert E. Stnjder:Mr. William S. Hill: Mrs. Catherine A. Kerns. Library: MissEvelyn A. Englander. Administration: lstLzJohn T Simpson,USMC: SSgt John Hudson, USMC; Sgt Exkchart Rat-tanachai, USMC, CplJean P. Duckett, USMC: LCpl Michael

J. Miksovsky, USMC: I.Cpl Todd M. Halacy, USMC. Securi-ty Unit: SSgt Ricardo E. Harding, USMC.

Mr. Robert E. StruderSenior Editor/Editor Fortitudine

Memorandum from the Director: Remembering Bob SherrodBGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret) 3

Historical Quiz: World War II Medal of Honor RecipientsLenaM.Kaljot: 7

Readers Always Write: Careful Readers Scrutinize World War II Pamphlets 8

Five New Titles Enlarge World War II Anniversary SeriesBenis M. Frank 9

New Detachment for Reservists Aids Historical ProgramCol Dennis I? Mmczkowski USMCR 10

Acquisitions: Museum Acquires and Restores Rare Marine NCO SwordKenneth L. Smith-Christmas and LtCol Charles H. Cureton, USMCR 11

Answers to the Historical Quiz: World War II Medal of Honor Recipients 12

Museum Gets Nihart Body Armor Collection for StudyKenneth L Smith-Christmas 13

Current Chronology of the Marine Corps: Corps Grappled withComplex Somalia Relief Effort

Ann A. Pen-ante 15

New Books: World War H Predominant in Marine-Interest Book ListEvelyn A. Englander 17

WWH Bibliography UpdatedEvelyn A. Eng/ander 17

Personal Papers Describe the Marine at 'Teapot Dome'Frederick J. Graboske 18

Flight Lines: The Okha Suicide Flying BombKenneth L Smith-Christmas and Michael E. Starn 19

World War H Chronology, 1941-1945: April-June 1945Robert V Aquilina 20

Students Given Shepherd, Gridley Memorial FellowshipsCharles R. Smith 24

THE COVER

Combat artist Lt Mitchell Jamieson, USNR, produced this watercolor and crayon work,"Wounds in the Rain," during one of many visits with Marines in the World War II battlefor Okinawa. Of this 1945 piece he wrote, "A sudden shower is falling although the sunis still out. The rain sparkles in the light and the vegetation seems to steam in the heat

- stretcher bearers put down their load to rest for a spell while their casualty is mademore comfortable. For the painfully wounded, this is the beginning of a seemingly endlessjourney. Down the trail. . . through pine forests, little clearings, and cultivated bits of earth,into deep ravines, then up again over hills, following the thin ribbon of communicationswire as ii it were the thread life depended on. Then from the regimental CP the trip inambulance or stretcher-equipped jeep to the division hospital along the coast road, a jolt-ing, dusty journey." Reference historian Robert V. Aquilina details the hard-won Okinawacampaign in this issue's "World War II Chronology: 1941-1945:' beginning on page 20.

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

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

2 Fortitudine, Summer 1994

Memorandum from the Director

Remembering Bob SherrodBGen Simmons

ST. ALBAN'S Episcopal Church sharesthe grounds of the National Ca-

thedral at Wisconsin and MassachusettsAvenues in Northwest Washington, but Iam told that the parish is quite separatefrom the cathedral. The little church hasa heavy, buttressed Gothic look. On this,the afternoon of 3 March, it was taken for"a service in Thanksgiving for the Life ofRobert Lee Sherrod, February 8, 1909-February 13, 1994." Outside the church theweather was bleak, gray, and rainy, thetrees and grass smudged with dirty, melt-ing snow. Inside was warm and elegantwith dark fumed oak, dark red carpeting,and much polished brass railing and can-delabra. The winter light came throughthe reds and blues of narrow, sharplyarched stained glass windows. There wasa churchly smell of furniture polish andcandlewax.

This was a memorial service rather thana funeral. The funeral had been earlier,restricted to the family, with burial inSewickley, Pennsylvania. The order of wor-ship for the memorial service neverthelessfollowed the Episcopal ritual, "The Buri-al of the Dead: Rite One." The officiantwas a woman priest, the Reverend Mar-garet McNaughton.

The Marine Corps' presence waspronounced. There was a color guard ofvery tall Marines in blues, and, in scarletjackets, organist Norman Scribner and thebrass quintet from the Marine Band. Mus-ic played included the National Anthem,the funereal Marines' Hymn Apotheosis,the Navy Hymn Eternal Father, and Hen-ry Purcell's Voluntary on Old 100th.

F IVE OF US GAVE REMEMBRANCES from

the lectern which is elaborately carvedinto a huge eagle. Maxine Pineau, thewidow of Capt Roger Pineau, USNR(Ret)—the naval historian who, himself,just recently died—spoke first, sketchingin Bob's life from his first years.

"Bob Sherrod was born and raised inThomasville, Georgia, a lovely southerntown with excellent schools, where life was

Famed American portraitist Joseph C.Chase painted Sherrod in his war cor-respondent's uniform in 1945. The portraithas been loaned to the Historical Center

pleasant," said Maxine. "The eldest of fivechildren, he is survived by his sister, LouiseBassett, of Tallahassee. He never forgot hisroots

A great deal of South Georgia remainedwith Bob Sherrod, including his courtlyway of speaking. He liked to say that hecame from an old line of Confederates.Three of his four great-grandfathers werekilled in what he had learned to call the"Civil War." The fourth great-grandfatherlived until Bob was about eight years oldand Bob never forgot the stories he toldhim. One was that the old Confederatehad been wounded twice, once in the headand once in the heel, and the one in theheel had hurt the most.

That great-grandfather served in the61st Georgia Infantry, the Wiregrass Regi-ment. We had a staff ride for Marine Corpsgeneral officers at Antietam in the springof 1988 and Bob went along. It was a role-playing war game and Bob played the partof war correspondent George W. Smalleyof the New York Tribune. I rememberstanding with Bob near the bridge whichBurnside tried to cross with the IX Corps.The bridge was successfully defended by

Georgia troops and Bob supposed that hisgreat-grandfather must have stood justabout where we were standing.

" OB WAS EDUCATED at the Univers-

ity of Georgia," continued MaxinePineau in her remembrance. "In 1929, atthe age of 20, he received the degree ofBachelor ofJournalism. While a student,he began his career as the campus cor-respondent for the Atlanta Constitution."

These were the years of the GreatDepression. There was no great amountof money in the Sherrod family and he wasits first member to go to college. He likedto say that one of his professors said tohim, "You write a pretty good sentence.Why don't you think about writing as acareer?"

For a time he eked out a living report-ing part-time for the Palm Beach News,and then, as Maxine told the congrega-tion, "With little money but a lot ofcourage, he worked his way to New Yorkon a ship. His timing was poor—he land-ed there the day the New York JVorldwentout of business — and unemployed report-ers were numerous."

A FTER DRIFTING FROM job to job forseveral years, he was taken on by For-

tune in 1935 for a six-month stint of writ-ing about Miami and Palm Beach. Hethen switched over to Life. After a spellin Chicago, from where he covered thewhole midwest, he was transferred toWashington, where he and two otherreporters constituted what later becamethe Washington Bureau of Time and Life.

Bob Sherrod loved politics and he wasessentially a political reporter until he wassent to the famous 1941 maneuvers inLouisiana. During these maneuvers he metcertain Army officers including Col Eisen-hower, Maj Guenther, BGen Mark Clark,and MajGen George Patton. But, as helater said, "none of whom I saw during thewar because I went to the Pacific and theywent to Europe."

On his return to his Washington beat,

Fortitudine, Summer 1994 3

squad to which Bob had been attached.Consider this an instance where a goodshot of bourbon saved a good man's life."

his conversion from political to militarycorrespondent continued. He got to knowthe military persons at the top: Adm Lea-hy, Adm King, Gen Marshall, and so on.He could tell you about them all. He hada story about Gen Marshall which also car-ried a whiff of the skepticism he had forthe generalship of Gen MacArthur.

() N 15 NOVEMBER 1941, on the vir-tual eve of Pearl Harbor, Gen Mar-

shall, then the Chief of Staff of the Army,called in seven of the top correspondentsin Washington, Bob amongst them, for avery confidential interview. The UnitedStates, said Marshall, was on the brink ofwar withJapan. The Japanese were expect-ed to strike at the Philippines. Under con-ditions of great secrecy, the defenses of thePhilippines were being greatly strength-ened. Already in place was the largest con-centration in the world of B-17 bombers.Marshall was very optimistic as to the out-come. Asked about how the Navy cameinto the picture, he answered, "The grandstrategy does not include the use of muchnaval force."

After Pearl Harbor, Bob was one ofTime's first correspondents to be sent tothe Pacific. He arrived in Australia inMarch 1942 and this is when he first metDouglas MacArthur. The MacArthur per-sona fascinated him and thisfascination — a cynical fascination I shouldsay— remained with him for the rest of hislife.

SYEARS AGO, Bob and I worked

with a Canadian TV company that wasproducing a documentary based on Wil-liam Manchester's American Caesar. Dur-ing the course of this video interview Bobwas asked to suggest an epitaph for Doug-las MacArthur. Bob's suggestion was "Herelies the world's greatest actor."

Bob's own first combat experience waswith the Army in the Aleutians during thebattle for Attu in May 1942. Jerry Hanifin,a Time correspondent now semi-retiredand living in Florida, remembered Bobfrom that time.

"In a dispatch from Attu to Time maga-zine," said Hannifin, "retrieved from thearchives by Marylois Purdy, our belovedChief of Research, Bob wrote that thewinds of Attu were worse than theJapanese bullets whistling overhead.Fortunately for us all Bob dodged all thoseslugs, sometimes under extraordinary cir-cumstances. On one occasion on Attu, ayoung Navy lieutenant coaxed Bob out ofhis rain-drenched foxhole in the rocks tocome out to his destroyer overnight for ahot shower, a meal, and promised touchof bootleg bourbon — booze being a no. 1no-no aboard ship. Bob yielded to theyoung officer's invitation, with the under-standing that he would return to thebeachhead at first light. Overnight aJapanese banzai charge to the death —including suicide—swept down on the[soldiers] in the foxholes, and in a fero-cious firefight killed every man in the

A N ARMY GENERAL wrote to Hen.ry Luce, the publisher of Time and

Life, after Attu that "Sherrod is not onlya splendid reporter but he is a fine fellowand a good companion." The general alsotold Luce that Sherrod "obtained his factsby going into the thick of things where hesaw the action from the viewpoint of thefighting soldier."

After the Aleutians, Bob spent sometime at sea with the Pacific Fleet. Thenaval strength that he saw convinced himthat something big was about to happenin the Central Pacific. That somethingwould be lirawa. More than anything else,Tarawa established his reputation as a warcorrespondent. It also did something tohim internally that forever afterward con-ditioned his way of looking at war.

Thrawa: The Story of a Battle, a recog-nized masterpiece of battlefield reportage,appeared in 1944. It was an immediatesuccess and it is still in print. After the war,Tarawa was translated into Japanese andit is said that the Japanese edition outsoldthe English editions five to one.

Tarawa was followed by On to the West-ward in which Bob moved with the Ma-rines through the battles for Saipan andIwoJima. Of On to the Westward, also stillin print, Orville Prescott of the New YorkTimes wrote: "It is a good book, clear, sim-ple, vivid, and as horrible as any accountof slaughter and sacrifice should be. Mr.Sherrod has no particular mannerisms, noparticular interest in exploiting his ownpersonality."

O F THESE WARTIME BOOKS, Bob later

wrote: "The function of a war cor-respondent, as I see it, is not to write com-plete stories. He cannot write with theperspective which time alone can furnish.Leave that to the historians and theirmountains of official records. At best, thewar correspondent can write what he seesand hears and feels; he can perhaps reflectthe mood of men in battle, as those menappear and talk and fight."

After the war when he was covering thePentagon, the Marine Corps asked him towrite the official history of Marine Corpsaviation in World War II. This he took onas an evening and weekend venture, whilestill working full time for Time-Life. It is


A nattily-dressed 22-year-old reporter Robert Sherivd sits at his desk at the Westhamp-ton Beach, New York, Hampton Chronicle with Muriel King, daughter ofJohn L. King,the editor and publisber Sherrod brought his journalism degree up from Georgia.

getting monotonous to keep repeatingthis, but the History of Marine Corps Avi-ation in JVorld War II is also still in print.

Bob wrote the major portion of the textfor Life's Picture History of World War II.The book sold 600,000 copies and madea reputed $1.5 million for Time-Life. Bobliked to say that, for this, Time-Life gavehim a generous bonus of $5,000.

Bob left Time in 1952 to join the Satur-day Evening Post. He became successivelyFar East correspondent, managing editor,editor-in-chief, and editor-at-large. Oneof his great experiences was to go aroundthe world in company with Norman Rock-well, the artist, and Ollie Atkins, the pho-tographer, interviewing such world leadersas Nehru of India, Ben Gurion of Israel,Nasser of Egypt, and Tito of Yugoslavia.He had some charming stories to tell ofRockwell as a traveling companion.

In 1966 he went back to Life magazineas a contract writer. He wrote a remarka-bly prescient article, "Notes on a Mons-trous War," which appeared in the 27th ofJanuary 1967 issue. In it he said, "Afternearly two months in Vietnam I find thisthe most hateful war we have ever fought

" OB WAS THE DEVOTED father oftwo sons, John and Robert, the

proud grandfather of Amy, Bill, Sonia,and Marcia, and doting great-grandfatherof three-year-old Jeremy and one-year-oldAbig.il," said Maxine Pineau. "Family con-nections of all kinds were important toBob . . . . It was the tragedy of his lifethat he survived two beloved wives, but thelast decade of his life was enhanced by hislove for Bernice Jacobsen. . . . And friend-ships were important to Bob. The sharedinterests and mutual admiration betweenmy late husband, Roger, and Bob were thefoundations of a 50-year friendship ofenormous importance to them both."

I remembered a Christmas seasonbreakfast at the Pineau house about 10years ago. Word processors and microcom-puters were still quite new. I was consider-ing buying one. Roger at that time waswriting a book with John Costello, and hehad a new computer of which he was veryproud. He gave us a demonstration in-cluding the use of the modem to talk toCostello in New York. I was impressed.Capt Edward L. "Ned" Beach, the Navysubmariner and writer, was there, and hesaid that he had a bottom-of-the-line

computer which he said wasn't much butit got the job done. Bob had watched thedemonstration with mild amusement.

"My word processor is 25 years old," hesaid, "and she also makes coffee.'

I never met his word processor, but I amquite certain that in addition to being anefficient typist, she was also an attractiveyoung lady. Bob appreciated attractive la-dies and he knew how to turn a compli-ment. Foster Hailey of the New YorkTimes described him as "The sort of manwhose tie women are always eitherstraightening, or wanting to."

Bob was unfailingly helpful to otherjournalists, historians, and authors," saidMaxine. "He was generous with his time,making his voluminous files available andreviewing manuscripts and books. Hismemory of World War II and subsequentevents was encyclopedic

O NE OF THOSE SHARING his memories

of Bob at the service was YoshihisaKomori, chief of the Washington bureauof the Sankei Shimbun.

"The very last time I spoke to Bob Sher-rod was just a week before his passing,"said Mr. Komori. "On the phone, I askedhim some questions for my newspaper ar-ticles for readers in Japan, as I had donecountless times in the prior 15-year peri-od, this time about the Ernie Pyle Theat-er in Tokyo that the American forces usednearly 50 years ago. Of course, Bob hadbeen there. Of course, he remembered itall. He told me how the theater hadlooked and how it had been used and soon, in his usual concise yet very illustra-tive fashion.

'Then Bob went on to tell me about hisinvolvement with this World War II cor-respondent, Ernie Pyle himself, afterwhom the theater was named. 'You see,Yoshi, I stayed one night with Ernie in thesame living quarters in Okinawa, just a fewdays before he died. He was killed whilecovering [an action] on a small island nearOkinawa. That was April 18, 1945, and theisland is called lejima.' Then, Bob kindlytold me how to spell Ic Jima. So typicalof Bob, precise, thorough, and profes-sional."

B OB WAS NOT a great public speaker.He did not do well in front of a large

audience. But he was a great conversation-alist and a great raconteur. He was at hisbest at a luncheon table with two or threefriends. He was superb at small dinnerparties.

"In more recent years, my wife Susanand I have had the great joy and privilegeof seeing Bob frequently, sometimes asoften as every other week for weekendlunches," remembered Yoshi Komori."These lunches were lively affairs, includ-ing a wide variety of old and new friends.As the discussions would proceed, Bobpreferred not to focus on the past, butwould express his always informed and in-sightful views on current national andworld affairs. Bob was always accompaniedby his beloved companion Bernice Jacob-sen, with whom he had many years of hap-piness, and with whom he took his lasttrips—the very last one was to Texas, toparticipate in a symposium on the PacificWar."


In the late 1940s, Mr and Mrs. Sherrod, at left, entertained Medal of Honor holderCol David M. Shoup, USMC, and a friend at New York City's famous Stork Club.A popular war hem, Shoup became Commandant of the Marine Corps j5vm 1960-1963.

politicians and the homebodieswhat they had done when they sentthose boys to the butcher, to tellthem that war is not a TV show, isnot a Hollywood film, that it trulyis an earthly hell.

One could hope, vainly no doubt,that the politicians and tub-thumpers of our own time, as wellas those among this generation ofjournalists who dream of "glory"and professional profit, would studyhis work and learn from it.

R ICHARD HARWOOD, the now-retireddeputy managing editor of the

Washington Post and a World War II en-listed Marine, had similar memories.

"He was, as we all know, a modest man.He was not given to boasting or embel-lishment of his career. He was also verytough and courageous, never whiningabout the series of painful disabilities thatafflicted him in recent years and made thenormal rituals of life a chore. I admiredhim for that and for his good spirits. Hehad true grit. He also had good taste.Chris [Herbert C.] Merillat and I lunchedwith him at a little restaurant in Geor-getown where, like many old goats, we sa-vored the martinis, the gossip, tales of thePacific, and horror stories about our vari-ous disabilities, from hangnails to flutter-ing hearts."

Dick Harwood had not known Bob inthe war and "only became aware that heexisted midway through the Iwo Jimacampaign.

"Someone had gotten a copy of an ab-breviated version of Time magazine, pub-lished as I recall, as a public service fortroops overseas. The magazine was passedaround and it contained a long and veryunderstanding account of the Iwo battle,written, of course, by Bob. We were all im-pressed and I never forgot that story."

That abbreviated version of Time wascalled the "pony edition" and there wereothers of us at the service with reason toremember it.

D ICK HARWOOD HAD written a mov-ing tribute after Bob's death for the

Washington Post (February 28, 1994) un-der the headline, "He Told Truth AboutWar." In part it said:

Bob Sherrod was a war correspon-dent, a label that has various con-notations. Many "war correspond-ents" cover their wars from a greatdistance, writing heated prose de-rived from communiques, after-action reports, briefings and pressreleases. Others experience directlythe carnage, terror, cruelty andtragedy of battle . . . . As a Timecorrespondent, Sherrod was its ex-emplar in the Pacific in the 1940s,writing some of the most vivid ac-counts of men at war ever producedby an American journalist .

He was not, as some may have be-lieved, a war lover, nor was hea pacifist. He loved and wept forthose who fought, but hated theagony they endured. The purpose ofall his writings was to remind the

D ICK WAS MOVED to write his piece bythe paucity of accounts marking the

death of Bob Sherrod."Time magazine:' he wrote, "noted his

passing with a single paragraph, illustrat-ing the truth that journalistic fame has thehalf-life of cotton candy."

I would have to say, "Not quite so."If the journalist's writings go into books,

then that writer gains a special kind of im-mortality, particularly if his books stay inprint and are read by successive gener-

I thought of all the lunches and din-ners and good conversations I had hadwith Bob. His stories always had a pointand they were always well told. If you ad-mired his walking stick with the inlaidmother of pearl, he could tell you that itwas given to him by President Magsaysayof the Philippines. Mention of the Philip-pines would inevitably lead to some pointto be made about Douglas MacArthur. Abiography of MacArthur was to have beenhis last great work. Among other things,it was to have been the story of MacAr-thur's relations with the press. Bob, as agood reporter, met deadlines, but thedeadline for this biography was one thathe would not meet. Work on the book wasinterrupted by the devoted care he gavehis third wife, Mary Gay, in her last fewyears — care that Bob gave with typical un-selfish gallantry. Her memorial service wasalso in St. Alban's.

After her death, Bob never really gotback to the book. There have been bitsand pieces of his thoughts on MacArthurin book reviews that he did and in othershort pieces, but no book, and that is ourloss.

T HERE IS AN ORGANIZATION called the

Military Order of the Carabao, ofwhith Bob was a member— and there were


In an August 1943 photograph taken at Adak in the Aleutians are, from left an uniden-tified officer; Capt Harold Rosenthal, MC, USA]?; Lt Sheldon Luce, brother of Time-L1fe founder and publisher Henry Luce; and Time magazine war correspondent Sherrod

ations.

many members at the memorial service.The organization was founded in 1901 byofficers who took part in the liberation ofthe Philippines, which is another way ofsaying the Philippine Insurrection. It wasrejuvenated after World War II by the ad-mission of members who took part in thesecond liberation of the Philippines. Bobwas an Associate Carabao, a special classof membership for war correspondents.There are luncheons and other kinds ofmeetings, but the chief function of theMilitary Order of the Carabao is its annu-al Carabao Wallow, a grand, old-fashionedkind of banquet evening, unabashedlypatriotic and bombastic. The Marine Bandand Drum and Bugle Corps play largeparts in the evening which features a sa-tirical musical revue, the humor consist-ing of pokes at the current politico-military scene. Bob enjoyed these eveningstremendously. We always sat at the sametable, a table incidentally named in honorof the late Col Robert D. Heinl, Jr. Bobattended until just these past few yearswhen his emphysema made it impossible.

I had become Director of Marine CorpsHistory late in 1971 and a year later, actu-ally at the Carabao Wallow in February1973, I asked Bob if he would serve on theCommandant's Advisory Committee onMarine Corps History. He accepted and heserved a three-year term. His advice wasalways pointed, trenchant, and useful.During these years, down to the virtualpresent, he was also frequently consultedby the Commandant of the Marine Corps,whomever it happened to be, and therewere several, on matters of public relationsaffecting the Corps.

IT GOES ALMOST WITHOUT SAYING, that

when we formed the Marine CorpsHistorical Foundation in 1978 that he, BobSherrod, would be one of the seven found-ing members. He then would serve for sixyears on the Foundation's Board ofDirectors.

In 1987 he was awarded the Founda-tion's Distinguished Service Award for hislifetime accomplishments in Marine Corpshistory and his services to the Foundation.This was only the second time this awardhad been made. As his citation states,

his direct and pungent advice hasdone much to shape" the programs of theFoundation.

"Direct" and "pungent" are good wordsto describe advice given by Bob Sherrod.

He was demanding of himself and othersand he was impatient of careless work.Almost every successive edition of thosebooks of his would contain changes: smallcorrections of fact that he wished to make.When his History of Marine Corps Avia-tion was reissued by Presidio Press in 1980,he insisted on an "Addenda and Corrigen-da" correcting some of the errors, nonemajor, that had been made inevitably inthe original edition. He also added somenew material, most significantly, his "Sup-plement on Aces:' fretting occasionally, ashe wrote, "over the issue of claims versusrealities." When the next edition cameout, this time by Nautical and AviationPublishing Company in 1986, there wasmore fine-tuning.

I N ADDITION io his passion for accura-cy, he was also a stickler as to construc-

tion and grammar and a compulsiveproofreader. He had a passion for "gettingit right." As an old-time editor, he likedto write in the margins of articles andmanuscripts. I remember that in one ofmy pieces he disagreed with my use of theword "whom" in place of "who." He put

a circle around it and in the margin hewrote, "Wrong." There were other gram-matical errors in the piece and he had cir-cled these and had written in the margin,'Wrong, wrong, wrong." But at the end ofthe manuscript, there was a compliment.He had added, "You finally got it right."

Over a 20-plus-year period I had a greatdeal of correspondence with Bob Sherrod.I kept it all and it occupies a file that is,by actual measurement, four inches thick.Much of it consists of notes appended tomarked-up copy. Amongst his varieties ofimpatience was his impatience with themodern-day U.S. Postal Service. He couldnever understand why it took five days fora letter to get from his aparment in North-west Washington to my office in SoutheastWashington. Generally, I would get a callon about the third day asking if I hadreceived his note and, if it were an actionitem, what was I doing about it?

We learned of his final act of generosi-ty to the Marine Corps after his death. Inhis will he had bequeathed his extensivelibrary to the Marine Corps HistoricalCenter. El 775E


Sherrod left shortly to join the Advisory Committee on Marine Corps History, went onboard ship in August 1972 for a talk with naval historian RAdm Samuel Eliot Morison.

Historical Quiz

World War II Medal of Honor Recipientsby Lena M. Kaljot, Reference Historian

Match the following World War II Medal of Honor recipients with the campaignsfor which they were awarded their medals.1. Sgt John Basilone a. Okinawa2. LtCol AquillaJ. Dyess b. Wake Island3. Capt Henry T Elrod c. Makin

4. Capt Joseph J. Foss d. Guadalcanal

5. Cpl Louis J. Hauge, Jr. e. Guamf. Guadalcanal

6. PlSgt Mitchell Paige g. Iwo Jima7. Col David M. Shoup h. Kwajalein8. Cpl Tony Stein i. Tarawa9. Sgt Clyde Thomason j. Solomon Islands10. Capt Louis J. Wilson, Jr. (Answers on page 12)

Readers Always JVrite

Careful Readers Scrutinize World War II PamphletsTHE CONFUSION OF BAITLE

I have no desire to damn with faintpraise or nit-pick over minor errors becauseI feel you. . . have done a wonderful jobin publishing the Commemorative Seriesand creating a lot of interest in the histo-ry of WWII.

I served with the 1st Battalion, 6th Ma-rines the entire time I was in the Pacific.We were fortunate to serve under Wm. K.Jones as our battalion CO. I was a platoonleader on Tarawa, then went to Saipan asexec officer of "C" Company. The CO wasKIA shortly after we landed and attackedinland, so I received one of those unwant-ed battlefield promotions. I continued toserve as acting CO of "C" Company forSaipan and Tinian.

On page 30 [of Breaching the Marianas:The Battle for Saipan], citing the Medalof Honor recipients, [PFC Harold G.] Ep-person is shown as being KIA on July25th. The island was secure on July 9th,so this is an obvious error.

Epperson was serving in the machinegun platoon of "C" Company at that time.Jones had sent up a 37mm gun to coveran avenue of approach and of course thisattracted the attention of the japs and theytried to knock out the gun in the middleof the night. A machine gun section wasemplaced around the gun. They threwgrenades or charges in the area with littlesuccess, but unfortunately Epperson wasKIA and a few more wounded. . . . Theplatoon leader. . . reported it and the in-cident was included in the daily report ofcasualties. We moved out the next day andit was. . . one of those things we put be-hind us . . . . Months later I was calledup to explain why [Epperson] had notbeen recommended for a medal and toverify the facts. I'm sure I heard the rack-et and put the company on an alert statusfor a possible night attack. Since I did notpersonally observe the action I didn't knowif he was trying to throw back the grenade,or get away from it, or deliberately coveredit with his body. Only God really knowsthe answer to that question. I found it allbut impossible to pick and choose amongthese men for medals. They were all heroesin my book and all those KIA deserved a

medal. But of course it doesn't work thatway.

[Concerning the incidents of) falling ongrenades, if you check the list of thoseawarded the Medal of Honor in 1943-45you will note a number in this category.In fact, as I recall, it just got out of hand.If one received it, then all should receiveit, and the facts were so difficult to verify.I'm sure it was done. . . with no formalorder, but the practice just came to a haltfor whatever reason after a certain cut-offdate. This is all based on rumor, I suppose,but the record would tend to bear out thisconclusion.

I would appreciate it if you would tryto correct the date on Epperson's citation

for the record. It seems to be true thatonce a mistake creeps into an article orbook it becomes "gospel" and is all butimpossible to correct .

LtCol Peter F Lake, USMCR (Ret)Austin, Texas

EDITOR'S NOTE: Series general editorBenis M. Frank responds: "The inaccuratedate in PFC Epperson's Medal of Honorcitation occurred as a result of a typo-graphical error since he was indeed award-edthe medalposthumouslyforactions on25 June, vice July. You are correct in not-ing that a number of Medal of Honorawards were made to individuals whothrew themselves on enemy grenades tosave their buddies. I feel certain that thosewho were reported to have done so werenot acting because they wanted a Medalof Honor especially a posthumous one."

CHURCH AND SHINTO SHRINERecently I sent you an inquiry regard-

ing the publication Breaching the Man-anas: The Battle for Saipan. Today Ireceived the copy . . . There is one thingabout that publication that may drawsome letters. The caption for the coverphotograph reads: A Marine enters theoutskirts of Garapan, Saipan, through thetori gate of a Shinto shrine. Departmentof Defense Photo (USMC) 92993. I havehad enough experience in publishing toknow that one must believe what is saidin the captions that accompany photo-graphs one intends to use. However, this

shrine is not in Garapan. Therein lies aninteresting story.

Under Japanese rule there were twopopulation centers. One was Garapan.The other was built around the sugarrefinery at what the records show as Cha-ran Kanoa. This is a phonetic spellingfrom the Japanese pronunciation. The na-tives call it Chalan Kanoa. They managethe Es better than did the Japanese. Thatarea was blown away during the pre-invasion bombardment and the refinerywas left in ruins. Nearby, U.S. forces soonestablished a camp for civilians. When itwas safe to do so, the camp was closed andthe natives were free to resettle. One of thefirst things they did was build a church.The location they chose was the ruins ofthe sugar refinery. The church was builtentirely by hand labor and Americansjoined in to assist the natives in the ven-ture. Today the church is designated as thecathedral. Alongside the church structureis a Catholic school complex. One of thebuildings is from the old refinery, the onlystructure to survive. Next to the school isa cemetery. That toni gate and shrine canbe seen today—smack dab in the middleof a Catholic cemetery.

Dr. Damon G. NaltySan Jose, California

EDITOR'S NOTE. A photograph of thepamphlet cover appears on page 9.

FIRST ARCTIC MARINESJust finished reading the monograph,

Outpost in the North Atlantic: Marines inthe Defense of Iceland Pass on a well doneto Col Donovan. Not only was his bookan interesting read, but his style was ex-cellent, as he was able to detach himselffrom the story. The sidebars on GensHermle and Marston were also excellent.

This publication is of some interest tous in the 2d Marines, currently the divi-sion's "cold weather" regiment and freshfrom a two-month deployment to Bridge-port and Fort Wainwright, Mash. Perhapsthe Iceland Marines were the first to doan extended deployment in an Arcticclimate!

LtCol John D. McGuire, USMCExecutive Officer, 2d Marines


Five New Titles Enlarge World War II Anniversary Seriesby Benis M. Frank

Chief Historian

F IvE NEW TITLES have been addedto the History and Museums Divi-

sion's "Marines in World War II" 50th an-niversary pamphlet series. Two of them,Breaking the Outer Ring: Marine Land-ings in the Marsha/is and Breaching theMarianas: The Battie for Saipan, were writ-ten by a veteran of both of those cam-paigns, Capt John C. Chapin, USMCR(Ret). The Marshalls combat narrative tellsthe story of MajGen Harry Schmidt's 4thMarine Division, which was formed atCamp Pendleton and steamed from SanDiego to begin the longest shore-to-shoreamphibious operation in the history ofwarfare—4,300 miles! In this pamphlet isthe story of the landings in the Marshallsin January-February 1944: on Roi-Namurby the 4th Division; the landing on Eniwe-tok by BGen Thomas E. Watson's brigad-ed 22d Marines and the 106th Infantry ofthe Army 7th Infantry Division; the land-ing on Majuro by the Marine V Amphibi-ous Corps Reconnaissance Company andthe Army 2d Battalion, 106th Infantry;and the attack on Kwajalein itself by the32d and the 164th Infantry. The successof these operations did indeed breach theouter barrier of Japanese-held islandswhich guarded the Home Islands.

Capt Chapin's second pamphlet tellsthe story of the terrible battle for Saipan,the length of which forced a delay in theGuam landing. The 2d and 4th Marine

Divisions, recently blooded in the Tarawaand Marshall Islands landings, respectively,forced heavily defended beachheadsagainst deadly Japanese fire directed byobservers looking straight down on thebeaches from the heights of MountTapotchau and Mount Tipo Pale. A fea-ture of the Saipan operation not met inearlier Marine landings was a large num-ber of island natives, many of whom com-mitted suicide by diving from the cliffs atthe northern end of the island. They didthis rather than endure "suffering" at thehands of the American "devils," as theywere warned by the Japanese military onSaipan. As the author points out, ". . . thehard experiences on Saipan led to a varie-ty of changes [in amphibious landings]which paid valuable dividends in savingAmerican lives in future Pacific cam-paigns. And the loss of the island was astrategic strike from which the Japanesenever recovered

American Embassy, London, where helearned first hand of what he discusses inthis pamphlet. LtCol Edwards deals withthe missions of Marines assigned to theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) in Eu-rope and North Africa; the Marine Bar-racks in Londonderry, Northern Ireland;and the individual senior Marines servingon the staffs of the commands heading upthe North African, Italian, and Norman-dy landings. The author also tells of theMarine detachments on U.S. Navy capitalships in European waters and of the bag-pipe band formed at Londonderry.

Liberation: Marines in the Recapture ofGuam, written by Cyril J. O'Brien, anewspaper reporter who enlisted in theMarine Corps and fought as a riflemanwith the 3d Marine Division on Bougain-ville, is the fourth new title. O'Brien wasgiven Marine Corps Combat Correspon-dent status prior to the Guam landings,and as such, he covered and wrote dis-patches about the fighting on the island.Taking part in the liberation of Guam wasthe 3d Marine Division, which assaultedBougainville in November 1943. Also partof the III Amphibious Corps in the Guamlanding was the 1st Provisional MarineBrigade, consisting of the 22d Marines,which first fought in the Marshalls, andthe reconstituted 4th Marines, comprisedof former Marine Raider battalions. Theliberation of Guam represented the recap-

T HE THIRD NEW BOOK in the series isA Different War: Marines in Europe

and North Africa. This pamphlet shouldanswer the many questions about whatMarines did in the European and NorthAfrican theaters of war. After the author,LtCol Harry W. Edwards, USMC (Ret),finished his war tour in the Pacific, par-ticipating with the 3d Marines in the Bou-gainville assault, in 1944-1946 hecommanded the Marine Detachment,


Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, andfrom airfields on other islands up the Solo-mons chain, to challenge experiencedJapanese fighter and bomber pilots withsuccess. From the two years of the Solo-mons campaigns, beginning with the 7August 1942 landing of the 1st Marine Di-vision on Guadalcanal, emerged morethan 70 Marine aces — pilots who had shotdown at least five enemy planes—il ofwhom were awarded the Medal of Honor.

ture of the first piece of American territo-ry lost to the Japanese in the war.

Cdr Peter B. Mersky, USNR (Ret), awidely published writer on military aircraftprepared the fifth new pamphlet. As thetitle, Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots inthe Solomons, 1 942-1 944, suggests, this isthe story of Marine airmen who rose from

All of the pamphlets in the Marines inWorld War II Commemorative Series, in-cluding the newest five, are available tomembers of the Armed Forces and vete-rans of World War II at no cost exceptpostage and handling ($1.50 each) fromthe Marine Corps Historical Foundation,P.O. Box 420, Quantico, Virginia 22134-0420. Others may order the individualpamphlets from the Superintendent ofDocuments, U.S. Government PrintingOffice, Washington, D.C. 20402. Thestock numbers for ordering are: Breakingthe Outer Ring: Marine Landings in the

Marshall Islands, No. 008-055-00-191-9;Breaching the Marianas: The Battle forSaipan, No. 008-055-00-190-1; A Differ-ent War: Marines in Europe and NorthAfrica, No. 008-055-00-192-7; Liberation:Marines in the Recapture of Guam, No.008-055-00-193-5; and Time of the Aces,No. 008-055-00-188-9. L111775E1

New Detachment for Reservists Aids Historical Program

Commandingby Col Dennis P Mroczkowski, USMCR

Officer Individual Mobilization Augmentee Detachment

I N THE PAST FOUR YEARS, the MarineCorps Historical Center has been able

to respond effectively to a number of oper-ations around the world because of theMarine reservists who were rapidlydeployed as historians and combat artists.These reservists have been "on the scene"to record Marine Corps and joint opera-tions and activities in Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Somalia,and Italy.

While the performance of these reser-vists attests to their individual prepared-ness, as BGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC(Ret), Director of Marine Corps Historyand Museums, said at a recent conference,"There was a little bit of luck involved."Gen Simmons said, "We are very lucky;but we are lucky because we are well pre-pared." In order to ensure that such "luck"continues, the Center has established anew reserve organization, an IndividualMobilization Augmentee (IMA) detach-ment. The detachment currently has fiveauthorized members all historians. Four of

these officers (Col Dennis Mroczkowski;LtCols Charles Cureton and Nicholas Rey-nolds; and Major Jon Hoffman) weremembers of Mobilization Training Unit(History) DC-7. This unit will continue tosupport the Historical Center and will pro-vide a pooi of qualified members for theIMA detachment.

A new IMA member is Maj JeffreyAcosta, who in civilian life is the curatorof the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk,Virginia. The reservists will drill at theCenter during one weekend each month,the same as members of any Select MarineCorps Reserve unit. However, their activeduty for training will be devoted to histor-ical writing or artistic projects, and work-ing with Marine Corps organizationsduring major exercises.

T HE MISSION OF the new detachmentis to "assist the Director of Marine

Corps History and Museums to record,preserve, and disseminate the cumulative

operational and institutional experience ofthe Marine Corps. . . by providing trainedand capable combat historians and com-bat artists for deployment with operatingMarine Corps forces and joint service com-mands; by performing research and writ-ing on historical subjects [and] by creatingartworks reflective of Marine Corps oper-ations and historical subjects To

fulfill this mission, a training schedule hasbeen established to address the require-ments of historians and artists in theirprofessional roles and as Marine officers.

In keeping with the need for possiblerapid deployment, the detachment is

preparing a new Standing OperatingProcedure (SOP) that is expected to bepublished at the end of 1994. This SOPwill address those administrative proce-dures needed to bring a historian or artistonto active duty and to prepare him or herfor deployment, and will define the dutiesof historians and artists while recordingMarine Corps or joint operations in thefield. E]1775E]


Acquisitions

Museum Acquires and Restores Rare Marine NCO Swordby Kenneth L. Smith- Christmas andLtCol Charles H. Cureton, USMCR

T HE RESIORArION is now complete of arare noncommissioned officer's sword

which the Marine Corps Museum acquiredthis year through the Museum AcquisitionFund of the Marine Corps Historical Foun-dation. The sword is the type carried byMarines from the late 1820s up to the CivilWar and was bought from a collector inthe Philadelphia area. According to theformer owner, the sword had been disco-vered in an attic in Norfolk, Virginia, butthere are no further clues as to itsprovenance.

When the sword arrived at the Muse-um, it was in rough, but restorable, con-dition. GySgt William Lightel, USMC(Ret), a longtime museum volunteer andantique weapons expert, was contracted torestore the sword. Last year, GySgt Light-ci had restored Gen Gerald C. Thomas'sword prior to its being mounted in theThomas Room at the Marine CorpsResearch Center (see Fortitudine, Summer1993, "Museum Exhibits Adorn NewQuantico Research Center"). In additionto restoring the sword, GySgt Lightel alsoreconstructed a brass drag for the leatherscabbard, using photographs of an extantexample. The photographs were suppliedby Clarence F. Runtsch, a former Marineand sculptor, who has both a noncommis-sioned officer's sword and a musician'ssword in his extensive collection of swords.

' HE PROCUREMENT and issue of this1. type of sword are detailed in research

conducted by LtCol Charles H. Cureton,USMCR, over the past 10 years for aplanned publication on the Marine Corpsuniform from 1829 to the Civil War. Inthe correspondence of the Quartermasterof the Marine Corps, which now residesin Record Group 127 of the National Ar-chives and Records Administration, LtColCureton found that the Quartermaster ob-tained swords for noncommissionedofficers and musicians from the WidmanCompany, a respected firm in Philadel-phia. The company was founded byFrederick W. Widman, who had emigrat-

ed from Germany in 1816 and opened hisown business as a swordmaker in 1825. Forthe next 23 years he produced a variety ofhigh-quality swords, using steel bladeswhich he imported from the city of Solin-gen in his native Germany. The well-known firm of William H. Horstmann ac-quired the company upon Widman'sdeath in 1848, but aside from marking theblade with his firm's name, Horstmannmade no alterations to either the noncom-

missioned officer's or the musician's sword.The sword purchased by the Museum hasthe post-1848 Horstmann marking.

These Widman swords follow the styleof the eagle's-head "family" of swordswhich were popular in America during theFederal period, from about 1805 to theMexican War. The differences between thenoncommissioned officer's and musician'sswords ordered for the Marine Corps arein the configuration of the hilt and thelength and finish of the blade. The non-commissioned officer's sword has a blackleather-covered wooden grip which is

wrapped with twisted brass wire. It has abrass "P'shaped guard, eagle's-head pom-mel with a back strap, and langets.

The musician's sword is slightly short-er, has a solid brass hilt and grip, with astylized eagle's-head pommel. While thenoncommissioned officer's sword has ablued finish and gold-filled engraving onthe upper half of the blade, the musician'ssword has a bright steel blade.

T HE BLADE OF THE noncommissionedofficer's sword is 33 inches long and

the blades of surviving such swords con-form to measurements given in the cor-respondence in the Quartermaster files.The black leather sword scabbards have abrass drag and throat, with a stud mount-ed on the throat, since both swords wereintended to be worn from shoulder belts.

The lack of any specific Marine Corps

Fortitzidine, Summer 1994 11

The NCO sword, an 1820 design, was complete but in need of conservation measureswhen purchased by the Foundation. The eagle 's-head grip is of wood covered withblack leather and decorated with twisted brass wire. The blade has a blued finish.

Photo by GySgt William Lightel, USMC (Ret)

The musician's sword was carried by bands-men and all fifers and drummers in theMarine Corps. Musicians carried theirswords in the same shoulder belts used bynoncommissioned officers.

markings on the sword blades is attributa-ble to the fact that these swords were notprocured solely by the Marine Corps,although there are indications that theMarine Corps was one of Widman's firstcustomers for these swords. Unlike otherQuartermaster purchases, these swordswere not contracted for under a bid sys-tem. The Quartermaster purchased theseswords directly from the dealer as theywere required in order to maintain sup-plies. Although the correspondence overthe first order apparently has not survived,the Marine Corps' early use of this swordis evident in contemporaneous art: thesword is illustrated in E. C. Young's water-color of a Marine orderly sergeant, whichis dated 1827. (At this same time, the Ma-rine Corps also adopted the familiarMameluke-hilt sword for its officers.)

Apparently Widman also sold swords of

In its mottled, unrestored state, the swordreveals the initials "EW7' thought to referto the supplier the W'idman Company.

the same two types to militia officers, assome swords with possible militia associa-tions have surfaced in other collections.There is nothing unusual about this, assword makers who supplied arms to theU.S. Army also routinely sold official-pattern swords to militiamen. The attri-bution of the Widman pattern sword asbeing Marine Corps is confirmed in a pre-Civil War (c. 1856) Horstmann catalogwhich illustrated both types of swords un-der the heading "Marine Corps." Accord-ing to official correspondence, the cost ofthe noncommissioned officer's and musi-cian's swords remained constant through-out this period. The noncommissionedofficer's sword cost $7, the musician'ssword cost $5, and a shortened, "boy's"version of the musician's sword sold for$3.75.

The noncommissioned officer's swordwas authorized for all sergeants, orderlysergeants, the Quartermaster Sergeant ofthe Marine Corps, and the Sergeant Majorof the Marine Corps. Sergeants carried thesword in addition to their other equip-ment: typically musket, cartridge box, andbayonet. The sword was suspended froma double-frogged shoulder belt, holdingboth the sword and the bayonet. Orderlysergeants and staff noncommissionedofficers, who were not equipped with amusket, wore it by itself from the shoul-der belt. As a staff noncommissionedofficer, the principal musician of the Ma-rine Band also carried the NCO sword.

U NTIL RECENTLY, research had beenconfined solely to the existing uni-

form regulations (which offered little help)and supposition. There are no knownpaintings or drawings extant from thisperiod which depict a Marine noncommis-sioned officer in sufficient detail to deter-mine the design of the sword from the artalone. Accordingly, articles and bookswritten in the 1950s and 1960s inferredthat the swords which Marines had carriedin the War of 1812 were used until theysupposedly were replaced by the M1840U.S. Army noncommissioned officerssword. Subsequent research, again byLtCol Cureton, reveals that this assump-tion is also in error. Instead, we now knowthat Marine noncommissioned officershave carried basically the same sword since1859, and the only Marines who carriedthe M1840 Army noncommissionedofficer's sword were bandsmen who worea modified version in the late 19th century.

Thanks to further primary sourceresearch and the opportunity to acquirethis sword, we now know the exact patternof the sword worn by Marine noncommis-sioned officers from 1827 through 1859.Even better, as a result of the restorationwork funded by the Marine Corps Histor-ical Foundation, we now have a displaya-ble example for exhibit and study in thefuture. E1775L1


Photo by GySgt William Lightel, USMC (Ret)After restoration by retired GySgt William Lightel the grip has more of its originalcolors and polish, including the glint of the twisted brass wire decoration against thedark leather wrapping. Conservation techniques also prolong the life of the sword

Answers to the Historical Quiz

World War IIMedal of Honor Recipients

(Quiz on page 7)

1. d2. h3. b4. f5. a

6.7.8. g

9. c

10. e

Museum Gets Nihart Body Armor Collection for Studyby Kenneth L. Smith- Christmas

Curator of Material History

C OL F. BROOKE NIHAIrr, USMC (Ret),the retired long-time Deputy Direc-

tor for Marine Corps Museums, has donat-ed his collection of personal body armorfor use as a study collection at the Air-Ground Museum at Quantico. Among hismany pursuits, Col Nihart had two par-ticular collecting interests: the small armsproduced by the Virginia Manufactory ofArms in Richmond, and the developmentof body armor through the ages. He builthis armor collection over a period of yearsprior to becoming the head of all MarineCorps Museums in 1973, mainly by pur-chasing items from well-known dealers.

The earliest pieces in the gift are twosets of rare Civil War body armor, whichrepresent a period in which very little per-sonal armor was produced. Both of thesewere made in Connecticut about 1862.The use of body armor by European andAmerican armies in the field had sharplydecreased after the mid-1600s and, withfew exceptions such as these two sets, hadceased altogether by the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914. However, by 1915 itbecame apparent that body armor couldeffectively stop many of the wounds in-flicted in static trench warfare. By Ameri-ca's entry into the war in 1917, all of themajor powers had adopted steel protectivehelmets and the Germans had issuedseveral versions of heavy breast armor forsnipers and machine gunners. Many of thepieces in Col Nihart's donation date fromthe World War I period.

The U.S. Army's Ordnance Departmentsought the commissioning as a major ofBashford Dean, the New York Metropoli-tan Museum of Art's Curator of Arms andArmor, and charged him with the de-velopment of a suitable helmet for theAmerican army. After a fact-finding mis-sion to Europe, Maj Dean and his staffdesigned at least 15 different prototypehelmets and several types of lightweightbody armor. However, the speed withwhich the U.S. Army had to be equippedand the coming of the Armistice in 1918

precluded the adoption of Dean's designs.The U.S. Army and Marine Corps foughtthe war wearing an American version ofthe inadequate, but easily-produced Brit-ish Brodie pattern helmet. (One of thesefamiliar flat "dishpan" helmets was alsodonated by Col Nihart.) It is this ex-perimental American armor that consti-tutes the core of Col Nihart's gift.

I N THIS DONATION are two sets of theexperimental body armor designed by

Maj Bashford Dean and his staff of muse-um specialists working for the Engineer-ing Division of the Ordnance Corps. Oneset was manufactured by the Hale & Kil-burn Company of Philadelphia, withsponge rubber padding made by theMiller Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio.The entire contract of 5,000 sets of thistype of armor were sent to France for test-ing. In addition, the museum received ex-amples of neck, shoulder, and shin armor,as well as two different versions of steel slit-ted eye defence shields.

The most unusual helmets in this giftare three examples of the helmetsdesigned and produced by Maj Dean andhis staff. One of them, a Model 2 helmet,was a ballistically superior helmet, but it


The Model 3 was one of the World War I-era helmets designed by MajBasbfordDean,the curator of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Like the Model2 it was ballistically supetior but was rejected because it was too difficult to manufacture.

Experimental body armor designed by Maj Dean was manufactured by the Hale &Kilburn Co. of Philadelphia, with sponge rubber padding made by the Miller RubberCo. ofAkron. The entire delivery of5, 000 sets was sent to troops in France for testing.

Maj Dean 's Model 5, above, was meant to improve on the Model 2, rejected becauseit was thought to resemble too closely the German helmet. Although turned backby the US. Army, the Model 5 was adopted in 1918 by the Swiss Army and untilquite recently was still in production. The influence of medieval design is seen in theModel 8, below, intended for use by snipers and machine gunners, but never adopted

Dean 'Sprotective "Liberty Bell" helmet of lightweight steel was nearly adopted as theUS. Army standard but since the B,i.tish Bro die pattern helmet was cheaper to produce,American soldiers wore a version of that far less satisfactory 'dishpan" headgear

was rejected because it too closely resem-bled the German M1916 "coal scuttle" hel-met. An improved version of the Model2 helmet, the Model 5 helmet, althoughalso rejected by the American Army, wasadopted in 1918 by the Swiss Army andsaw service until recent years. The in-fluence of medieval design is apparent inthe third helmet of this group. It is thevisored Model 8 helmet which was intend-ed for use by snipers and machine gun-ners, but never adopted. The "LibertyBell" helmet was provisionally accepted forthe American Army, but few were everproduced, again due to the brevity of theAmerican involvement in World War I.Two examples of this helmet were also do-nated to the museum in this gift.

To represent the other belligerents inWorld War I, the museum received aFrench M1915 Adrian helmet, a GermanM1916 "coalscuttle" field gray helmet, andan Austrian M1918 helmet. The Austrianhelmet is painted white and was upgradedin the 1930s with a new liner and issuedto a German Waffen SS (Shutzstaffel) uniton the Eastern Front in World War II.Other helmets from the 1930s include ex-amples of the helmets worn by both theFalangist and Loyalist forces during theSpanish Civil War.

T HE FOREIGN HELMETS from WorldWar II include a Soviet M1936 hel-

met, a Dutch helmet, an Italian cavalryhelmet (with crossed lances painted on thefront), and both a British paratrooper'shelmet and a M1944 helmet. Americanhelmets from the same period include alarge, gray Navy "talker's" helmet and twoexamples of the Army Air Force armoredair crew helmet, all of them made largeenough to accommodate earphones. Withthe aviator's helmets came an armored vestfor aircrewmen.

Several of the World War I experimen-tal helmets and one set of body armorwent on display in April 1994 at the Ma-tine Corps Air-Ground Museum. This spe-cial exhibit was mounted for a visit by theAmerican Association of Arms Collectorsand remained on public view until theend of May. In early June, its components,along with a number of other items fromthe collection, were packed and shippedto the German Army's Technical Museumin Koblenz, Germany, where they will betemporarily on display as part of an exhibitwhich documents the use of body armorthrough the ages. L111775E1

Fortitudine, Summer 1994

SINCE 1981, the Reference Section hascompiled ongoing, current Marine

Corps chronologies that outline significantevents and dates in contemporary MarineCorps history.

Numerous primary and secondarysources are researched each week toproduce the current chronology of the Ma-rine Corps. The yearly chronologies serveas sources of information on significantevents in Marine Corps history as well astools for documenting important datesand anniversaries.

Selected entries from the 1993 MarineCorps Chronology are:

by Ann A. FerranteReference Historian

12 Jan—After five weeks of ground oper-ations in Somalia, a U.S. Marine was shotand killed during a gun battle near theairport in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.The Marine was the first American com-bat death in the military operation aimedat insuring the delivery of food and hu-manitarian relief supplies to thousands ofpeople in the famine-stricken country.15 Jan—After more than 11 consecutivedays of rain, Marine Corps Base, CampPendleton succumbed to flooding whichleft areas of the largest Marine amphibi-ous base under as much as 15 feet of water.The base was officially closed 17-2 1 Janu-ary to nonessential personnel. Gen WalterE. Boomer, Assistant Commandant of theMarine Corps, visited on 21 January to as-sess the estimated $70 million in damages.l8Jan—Approximately 850 Marines from3d Battalion, 9th Marines, left Somalia.An additional 1,900 Marines from the 1stForce Service Support Group and MarineAircraft Group 16 left later in the month.The number of U.S. forces remaining inthe country was just over 19,000, with thetotal coalition figures standing at 33,430troops, including those from 22 othercountries. Marine missions would be as-sumed by these coalition forces. Militaryrelief operations to Somalia were in pro-gress since August 1992 when OperationProvide Relief was initiated to provide foodto Somalia via U.S. military aircraft. Oper-

ation Provide Relief was absorbed underOperation Restore Hope last December.25 Feb-11 Mar—Approximately 3,500 Ma-rines and sailors from the II Marine Ex-peditionary Force, 2d Marines, 2d ForceService Support Group, and Marine Air-craft Group 40 participated in ExerciseBattle Griffin 93. The NATO exercise in-cluded sea, air, and land operations inNorway above the Arctic Circle.1-18 Mar—Approximately 10,000 Marinesparticipated in Exercise Team Spirit 93, ajoint/combined training exercise held inthe Republic of Korea (ROK). Team Spiritinvolved more than 100,000 troops fromall four U.S. combat services plus SouthKorean forces, and was the largest exerciseplanned for the year.29 Mar— The Senate Armed ServicesCommittee opened hearings on homosex-uals in the Armed Forces. The committeetailored the hearings to deal initially withfive major subject areas: legal questionsover a change in the present policy, effectson unit cohesion, experiences of foreigncountries, views of a broad cross-section ofmilitary personnel, and views of the in-dividual service chiefs and senior DODofficials.20 Apr-25 May—More than 20,500 serv-

ice personnel of the U.S. Marine Corps,Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard,along with allied forces, participated in Ex-ercise Ocean Venture 93 held in PuertoRico. It was designed to demonstrate theability of continental U.S.-based forces tooperate in a joint/combined environment.23 Apr—The Department of Defense In-spector General released the final,208-page report of the investigation intothe allegations of sexual assault and otherviolations committed during the 1991 Tail-hook convention held in Las Vegas. Thereport charged 117 officers with offensesranging from indecent assault to conductunbecoming an officer. Ninety persons, 83women and seven men, were found tohave been assaulted during the con-vention.28 Apr — Secretary of Defense Les Aspinannounced a revised policy on the assign-ment of women in the Armed Forces, im-plementing some of the recommendationsmade by the Presidential Commission onthe Assignment of Women in the ArmedForces that released its report duringNovember 1992. Aspin directed the mili-tary services to open more specialties andassignments to women, including permit-ting women Marines to compete for as-


Current Chronology of the Marine Corps

Corps Grappled with Complex Somalia Relief Effort

The wash from a CH-53D Sea Stallion heavy helicopter from HMH-363 raises cloudsof red dust outside a hunger-stricken Somali village. The aircraft avoids landing onmined roads as it delivers a load of grain from Australia during Operation Restore Hope.

signments in all aircraft, even thoseengaged in combat missions.30 Apr — Marine Aircraft Group 32 at Ma-rifle Corps Air Station, Cherry Point,North Carolina, deactivated as a result ofdownsizing requirements. Originally ac-tivated in 1943, the group served in thePacific during World War II, then in NorthChina before deactivating in 1947. Thegroup reactivated in 1952. Elements of thegroup participated in Operations DesertShield and Desert Storm.4 May— LtGen Robert B. Johnston passedthe command of the U.S.-led Somali reliefoperation, Restore Hope, to Turkish LtGenCevik Bir. Approximately 4,000 Ameri-cans would remain in Somalia as part ofthe United Nations force.7 May— President Clinton was treated toan evening of ceremonial pageantry asguest of honor at an Evening Parade con-ducted at Marine Barracks, Washington,D.C. It was his first official visit to a Ma-rine Corps installation. Prior to the startof the parade, the nation's 42nd Presidentand the First Lady attended a gardenreception hosted by the Commandant andMrs. Mundy.9-30 Jun — Marines of the I Marine Ex-peditionary Force participated in ExerciseNative Fury 93 held in Kuwait. The exer-cise provided training for Marines in Mar-itime Prepositioning Force operations.20 Jun —The 24th Marine ExpeditionaryUnit (MEU) returned to Mogadishu,Somalia, to assist United Nations forces inmaintaining peace in the war-torn coun-try. Earlier this month, the 24th MEU wasordered to cut short Exercise Eager Mace93-2 in Kuwait to respond to possible con-tingency operations in Somalia.23 Jun — In an effort to alleviate the Ma-rine Corps' shortage of tanks, an agree-ment was made for the Corps to receive50 M1A1 tanks from the Army. The addi-tional 50 tanks would bring the MarineCorps total up to 271.27 Jun—The Defense Base Closure andRealignment Commission completed itsdeliberations and votes for the 1993 roundof base closures. The most significant itemfor the Marine Corps was the prospectiveclosure of Marine Corps Air Station, ElToro, California.10-2 5 Jul —Approximately 5,000 Army,Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Spe-cial Operations personnel participated inExercise Tandem Thrust 93 in the areassurrounding and including Guam, Tini-

an, and Farallon de Medinilla Islands. Thejoint task force exercise was designed toemphasize response to regional crises andlow- to medium-intensity conflict.19 Jul — President Clinton announced thenew policy regarding homosexual conductin the Armed Forces. The new policy,which became known as "don't ask, don'ttell, don't pursue," directed that homosex-ual conduct would be grounds for separa-tion, yet sexual orientation would not bea bar to entry into the military or con-tinued service unless manifested byhomosexual conduct. It came followingnearly six months of extensive review at thehighest levels of government, and wouldbecome effective on 1 October.22 Jul — Eight F/A-18D Hornets from Ma-rine Fighter Attack Squadron (AllWeather) 533 arrived at Aviano Air Base,Italy, to participate in an extension ofOperation Deny Flight, the enforcementof the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina launched by NAID officialsin conjunction with the United Nationson 12 April.11 Aug—Defense Secretary Les Aspinreversed a new Marine Corps directive thatwould have barred enlistment of marriedrecruits after 1995. The Secretary ofDefense would initiate a Department ofDefense-wide comprehensive study offirst-term enlistment issues.1 Sep — Following more than five monthsof detailed study and analysis, the Depart-ment of Defense announced results of itsBottom-Up Review, leveling off MarineCorps strength at 174,000 active Marinesand 42,000 Reserve personnel. The reviewwas a comprehensive look at the U.S.Armed Forces and overall military strate-gy in the post-Cold War era.

27-28 Sep — Following a string of mishapsthat killed 13 people, the Commandantordered all Marine aircraft grounded fortwo days. The standdown came in thewake of six accidents involving Marine air-craft in a six-week period. The standdownwas used to review safety procedures, andaffected all Marine aircraft except those inEurope under NA1IO command and thehelicopters used by the President.

7 Oct—After the deaths of 14 U.S. soldi-ers in Somalia, President Clinton an-nounced the deployment there of anadditional 1,700 soldiers and 104 armoredvehicles. Additionally, he directed an air-craft carrier and both the 13th and 22dMarine Expeditionary Units (Special Oper-ations Capable) to positions off the Somalicoast.

11 Nov—The Vietnam Women's Memori-al was dedicated in a ceremony at the Viet-nam Veterans Memorial in Washington,D.C. The bronze statue depicts three wom-en and a wounded soldier. It honors thethousands of women who served inSoutheast Asia.

22 Dec—The Department of Defense is-sued new regulations that would enablehomosexuals to serve in the military solong as they keep quiet about their sexu-al orientation and refrain from engagingin homosexual acts. The policy allows serv-ice members to acknowledge homosexualfeelings and sympathies, provided thatthey can demonstrate that they are not en-gaging in homosexual conduct. The newregulations would take effect on 5 Febru-ary. They codify the Administration's com-promise policy dubbed, "don't ask, don'ttell, don't pursue," which was challengedby the Supreme Court. L1i1775EJ


In the capital city of Mogadishu, Marines ass:gned to Task Force Somalia prepare tosearch an ola fortified compoundfor weapons caches. With the collapse of their govern-ment, Somalisfoundthemselves at the mercy of "warlords" with "armies" of their own.

New Books

World War II Predominant in Marine-Interest Book List

T HE LIBRARY of the Marine CorpsHistorical Center receives many re-

cently published books of professional in-terest to Marines. Most of them areavailable from local bookstores or libraries.

The Proud. Inside the Marine Corps.Bernard Haisband Cohen. New York:Quill, 1992. 282 pp. The author spent ayear traveling with the men and womenof the Marine Corps, looking at their rolesin today's world. "The Marine Corps," theauthor concludes, "is a relatively smallgroup of men and women who still believein themselves . . . it is a force that has re-tained it's pride in an era that too easilylets slip the lion's share of that virtue. Itseems to me necessary to keep that beliefand that pride alive. . . . I am convincedthat people who really believe they areready for anything are the ones most like-ly to be so . . . ." Includes photographs.$13.00

The Devils Anvil: The Assault onPeleliu. James H. Hallas. Westport, Con-necticut. Praeger Publishers, 1994. 297 pp.The battle for Peleliu fought in Septem-

by Evelyn A. EnglanderHistorical Center Librarian

ber 1944 on a tiny coral island 500 mileseast of the Philippines was one of thiscountry's costliest victories in World WarII. Writing in tribute to all who fought onthe island, the author has tried to showPeleliu as it appeared to the rifleman aswell as the planner. Hallas reports on thepersonal combat experiences of scores ofofficers and enlisted men. A list of thoseinterviewed is included in the bibliogra-phy. Includes maps, photographs, bibliog-raphy $27.50

Men of War: Great Naval Leaders ofWorld War II. Stephen Howarth, editor.New York: St. Martin Press, 1992. 602 pp.Essays from 26 eminent.naval historians,including Marine Corps Chief HistorianBenis M. Frank, on 31 leaders whoplanned and conducted the Second WorldWar at sea: German, Japanese, British, andAmerican. Mr. Frank authored the chap-ter on Marine LtGen Holland M. Smith.The sections of the book are: the highcommand; the air admirals; the amphibi-ous admirals; and unsung heroes. Otherbiographies include: Admiral ArleighBurke; Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay; FleetAdmiral William F. Halsey; Vice AdmiralChuichi Nagumo; Grand Admiral ErichR2eder; and Grand Admiral Karl Donitz.Includes maps and illustrations. $27.95

Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boatsthat Won World War II. Jerry E. Strahan.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UniversityPress, 1994. 382 pp. One key element ofthe amphibious landings of World War IIwas the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Per-sonnel). This is the story of the boat'sdesigner and builder, AndrewJ. Higgins,who started his career in New Orleans in1938, with one small boat yard. (By 1943this had expanded to seven plants.) Dur-ing the war Higgins Industries produced20,094 boats: the 36-foot LCVP; lightning-fast PT boats; tank landing craft; and air-borne lifeboats dropped from B-17 bom-bers. Even Adolf Hitler was aware ofHiggins, calling him "the New Noah." Inwriting his book, Strahan conducted per-sonal interviews along with using the Hig-

gins Industries Archives. $29.95The Neck of the Bottle: George W

Goethals and the Reorganization of theUS. Army Supply System. Phyllis A. Zim-merman. College Station: Texas A&MUniversity Press, 1992. 201 pp. Dr. Zim-merman, who teaches at Ball State Univer-sity, is a recipient of a Marine CorpsHistorical Foundation grant for her workon BGen Evans E Carlson. In this historyof Gen Goethals and his efforts to reor-ganize the U.S. Army supply system tomeet the demands of World War I, Dr.Zimmerman shows these efforts fell farshort of what was desired as the result ofpolitics, inertia, and bureaucraticresistance to change. $39.50

Dearest Buckie: A Marine's Korean WarMemoir. John I. Williamson. Austin,Texas: Speights Publishing Company,1993. 200 pp. Col Williamson, who wasone of the commanding officers of 1stTank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, dur-ing the Korean War has compiled a bookbased on the letters he wrote to his wifeduring his tour of duty from 20 May 1952to 14 April 1953. The author provides aglimpse of his emotions and describes thedaily routine of Marines in the closingphase of the Korean War. $17.45, includ-ing postage, from Speights PublishingCompany, 1506 Thornridge Road, Austin,Texas 78758.

Arms for the Horn: US. Security Poli-cy in Ethiopia and Somalia, 1953 —1991.Jeffrey A. Lefebvre. University of Pitts-burgh Press, 1991. 351 pp. Provides a back-ground for understanding the present U.S.and U.N involvement in Somalia, by trac-ing U.S. diplomacy with northeast Africain the decades following World War II.$49.95

Saipan in Flames: Operation ForagerThe Turning Point in the Pacific War. Wil-liam H. Stewart in cooperation with PedroP. Tenoria andJ. M. Guerrero. J.M. & As-sociates, 1993, 110 pp. Mr. Stewart, aneconomist and military historical car-tographer, uses his considerable skills toproduce an interesting and well-designed


JVJVH Bibliography UpdatedThe US. Marine Corps in World

War II, An Annotated Bibliography,which updates the original 1965 edi-tion, is available from the MarineCorps Historical Center on diskettefor WordPerfect 5.1 software.

The bibliography was compiledby two of the Center's interns, LeeG2tchel and Midshipman WalterHoysa, USNA, with the guidance ofthe Center staff: It is planned thatthe bibliography will be revised atregular intervals. It is also to beavailable on MCCAT through on-line books.

At present the bibliography is 50pages in length and is arranged inbroad subject categories. Diskettesare available by writing to theLibrary at Building 58, WashingtonNavy Yard, Washington, D.C.20374-5040.

commemorative edition for the 50th an-niversary of the invasion of Saipan. The ef-fective use of maps and charts combinedwith illustrations of the islands of theNorthern Marianas makes this 110-pagecolor book a valuable addition to alllibraries interested in the battles of WorldWar II. $25.00 (available fromJM & As-sociates, P.O. Box 1292, Saipan, MP, 96950U.S.A.)

A View from the Rear Rank: A Story ofMarine Air Warning Squadron Eight inWorld War II. Edward W. Frmer. Privately

published (three copies available at Ma-rine Corps Historical Center Library). 250pages, 17 chapters, 2 appendices, photos,maps. This book discusses aircraft warn-ing squadrons of thé'Marine Corps as theywere developed, equipped, and deployedduring the latter stages of the war. Whileair control and direction were primitivecompared to today, the job was done withwhat was available. The fragmenteddetachments of a unit of this size in ac-tive combat areas make for unusual andinteresting situations not often recorded.

The first five chapters cover the trainingperiod in the U.S., and contain much ofthe "high jinks" of the time. The re-mainder covers the deployment of theunit, its excellent combat record, and itsdisposition at the end of the war. Though-out, there is enough of the "field Marine"vernacular to make the story real, but itis not overburdened in this respect. Thebook capably researched and is an interest-ing and balanced small unit history.(Review by MajGen John P. Condon,USMC [Ret]) LJ1775Ei

Personal Papers Describe the Marine at 'Teapot Dome'

W HEN I ASKED to prepare a regularfeature on what's new in the Ar-

chives, my expectation was that I wouldbe writing about new donations of per-sonal papers. Indeed, we have receivedseveral during the past months, and I willbe writing about one of them below. Butthe Archives also has an Official RecordsUnit, which receives all the commandchronologies. The importance of thosedocuments lies in their role as sourcematerial for histories of the Marine Corps,and especially of its deployments, such asDesert Shield and Desert Storm andSomalia. The Marine Corps HistoricalCenter deployed historians to both ofthose operations to ensure that importantdocuments would be saved by the variousunits.

The 3d Battalion, 11th Marines, did aparticularly thorough job on its commandchronology for Somalia. Such deploymentsare a particular problem for our histori-ans because units under unusual pressuresometimes fail to do command chronolo-gies as required, or the ones they produceare so cursory as to be of little value. Notonly are important pieces of USMC his-tory lost, but also those units fail to receivethe attention they deserve when the his-tories are written.

One of the great pleasures in workingin the Archives lies in learning the histo-ries of individual Marines. We recentlyreceived the papers of Maj George K.Shuler, who had a very interesting career.While attached to the USS North Dako-ta, he landed with the Marine detachmentduring the occupation of Vera Cruz, Mex-ico, in 1914. He commanded the 66thCompany in the first Marine unit sent to

by Frederick j GraboskeHead Archives Section

France in 1917, the 5th Marines. There healso won fame as the commander of the3d Battalion, 6th Marines, at the battle ofBlanc Mont in October 1918. For his brav-ery he was decorated by both the Frenchand American governments, entitled towear the Croix de Guerre, the Legiond'Honneur, and the Distinguished Serv-ice Medal. Although his war record un-doubtedly enumerates his greatest servicesto his country, an equally interestingaspect of his career was political.

I N 1910 HE received a leave of absencefrom MajGenComdt John A. Lcjeune

so that he could seek political office. Shul-er lost his race for the Congress andreturned to the Marine Corps. While onactive service in 1922 he faced an eventougher political test: Teapot Dome. Thiswas later to become a great, national po-litical scandal, akin to the Whiskey Ringof the Grant Administration and theWatergate of the Nixon Administration.Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall hadleased the naval petroleum reserve calledTeapot Dome, in Wyoming, to privatecompanies for exploitation. That bribeswere paid for these favors was exposed in1924. In the meantime, another compa-ny, owned by a contributor to PresidentHarding's 1920 campaign, who was resent-ful of Fall's apparent favoritism, begandrilling without permits. On 3OJuly 1922,this came to the attention of Acting Secre-tary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.He instructed MajGen Lejeune to send anofficer "of discretion" to eject the MutualOil Company from the reserve. Lejeune'schoice was Shuler.

He named Shuler Commandant of the

Salt Creek Naval District and dispatchedhim with four Marines to oust the in-truders. As one newspaper put it, "He maygive to these oil squatters a little moretime in which to get off from governmentland than he did to the Germans in get-ting off from that hill in France."

Accompanied by members of the press,Shuler travelled from Washington toCasper and thence to the drilling site. Heaccomplished his mission quickly and withno difficulty. However, there was consider-able criticism of the government for whatwas termed the unconstitutional use ofmilitary force in a private dispute. Whenthe scandals broke in 1924, Shuler's rolewas remembered and he testified beforethe Congress on his expedition.

I N NOvEMBER 1911, Shuler was electedTreasurer of the State of New York and

left the Marine Corps. In 1924 he receiveda few votes at the Democratic Party's na-tional convention to be the candidate forvice president. He was not named to hisstate party's ticket in 1924 and retired toprivate life as the publisher of moviemagazines. He did have one further con-tact with the Marine Corps. In November1926, President Adolfo Diaz of Nicaraguaasked Lejeune for a competent, well-trained American officer to head the con-stabulary and the Nicaraguan Army.Lejeune's first choice was Shuler, whoturned down the offer because of the lowsalary. The Senate Foreign Relations Com-mittee investigated the offer, which wasregarded as tantamount to American in-tervention. Thus ended Shuler's connec-tion to the Marine Corps, political to thelast. Eli 775L]


Flight Lines

The Okha Suicide Flying Bomb

B Y THE MIDDLE of the Pacific War,Japan had lost large numbers of its

warships and aircraft. In late 1943, Japanesenaval fighter pilots proposed special suicideattacks against the U.S. Navy ships support-ing American amphibious landings on thePacific islands. Originally, the idea was re-fused, but as the war worsened for Japan,support grew for kamikaze suicide opera-tions. Kamikaze, meaning "Divine Wind:'was a term derived from the name of thetyphoon which frustrated the Mongolianinvasion of Japan in 1280. The first use ofKamikaze tactics was in October 1944 whenJapanese pilots flew Mitsubishi A6M Zerofighters armed with a single 500-kilogram

by Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas and Michael E. Starn

bomb against American ships supportingthe landings on the Philippine island ofLeyte.

During the summer of 1944, Ens MitsuoOta (one of the Japanese naval officers whohad suggested the kamikaze program inthe previous year) was given permission todraw up plans for a special kamikaze at-tack aircraft. The Japanese Navy approvedOta's design in late 1944. The aircraft wasnamed Okha, which translates as "cherryblossom" in Japanese. (When the Okha be-came known to U.S. forces, it was labeledthe Baka bomb, meaning "foolish bomb:')The Okha bomb was constructed of woodand metal, with silk-covered wings. Power-

ed by three rocket motors, it was usuallycarried close to the target and launchedfrom the belly of a twin-engi1e MitsubishiG4M "Betty" bomber.

The Okha was first carried into battle on21 March 1945, by the 721st Kokutai. En-route to the target, the 16 parent aircraftwere intercepted by Allied fighters andwere forced to drop their Okha bombsshort of the target. The first combat suc-cess was achieved on 12 April when Okhasdamaged the U.S. battleship Tennessee,sank the U.S. destroyer Mannert L. Abeleand damaged three transport vessels. Statis-tics compiled at the war's end reveal thatalthough very few Okhas were successful,kamikaze attacks during the last 10 monthsof the war accounted for 48.1 percent of allwarships damaged and 21.3 percent of allships sunk by Japan during the war.

The Okha on exhibit in the MarineCorps Air-Ground Museum at Quantico isone of six Okha Bombs discovered at Kade-na Airfield in 1945. When restoration bythe museum began in 1977, someproblems presented themselves. First, theaircraft had been on display, with little orno preservation, for two decades as warbooty on Okinawa, where it had been cap-tured. The second problem was that noneof the museum staff could read Japanese.The Baka Bomb had already been strippedof its paint when Mr. Frank Howard, thenthe Museum's carpenter, began the resto-ration of the wooden structure. This phaseof the restoration would require more than70 hours of labor to return the aircraft tonear original condition. One of the con-cessions, due to cost, was to cover the air-craft with paper, instead of silk, beforepainting it grey-green. The translation ofthe original k.anyi writing was accomplishedwith help of MajGen 'Luneo Azuma of theJapanese Air Self-Defense Force (and seniormilitary attache with the Japanese Embassyin Washington, D.C.) MajGen Azuma notonly translated the characters, but also as-sisted in the recreation of them on thecompleted aircraft for display. The aircrafthas been on display since the Museumopened in 1978, and is one of the mostpopular attractions. 111 775L11


The Okha (cherry blossom) was known to US. pilots as the Baka bomb ('foolishbomb'). The lightweight aircraft was specifically designed for kamikaze operations.

Technical Data

Manufacturer: Dai-Ichi Kaigun Kokusho, Kasumigaura

Type: Single-seat suicide aircraft

Accommodation: Pilot only

Power plant: Three solid propellant rocket motors with a combined thrust of 1,764pounds

Dimensions: Span: 16 feet, 9 9-16 inches; Length: 19 feet, 10 3/16 inches.

Weight: Empty: 970 Ibs; Gross: 4,718 lbs.

Performance: Max speed, 403 mph at 11,485 feet; Dive speed: 576 mph; Range:23 miles

Armament: 2,646 lb. warhead in nose

U'orld iVar II Chronology, 1941-1945

April-June 1945By Robert V Aquiina

Assistant Head, Reference Section

Fortitudine's World War II Chronology continues with thelargest Marine Corps operation of World War II. The Ameri-

can campaign for Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands would be thepoint of final intersection of the Navy and Marine Corps' driveacross the Central Pacific and the Army's march up from theSouthwest Pacific. The island of Okinawa is approximately 60miles long and from two to 18 miles wide; the northern partwas wild and mountainous, and the southern portion somewhatmore open, but still hilly with several ridges crossing the islandfrom east to west. After months of planning, the stage was setin early spring 1945 for one of the bloodiest American campaignsof World War II.

Okinawa

1 Apr — Preceded by naval gunfire and air support, the III Am-phibious Corps (1st and 6th Marine Divisions, reinforced) andthe XXIV Corps (7th and 96th Infantry Divisions, reinforced)landed on Okinawa north and south of Bishi Gawa, respectively,on the Hagushi beaches of the island's western shore. The XXIVCorps captured Kadena airfield and advanced south along thecoast to the Chatan vicinity, and the III Amphibious Corps madeextensive ground gains to the east. Yontan airfield was securedby the 4th Marines, and the 7th Marines moved through SobeVillage, a first-priority objective.2 Apr —The 2d Marine Division effectively immobilized a largebody of Japanese forces by a diversionary feint against theMinatogawa beaches on the eastern side of the island. Forward

With naval gunfire thundering in the background landing craftof Company A, 1st Armored Amphibian Tractor Battalion,

First Division Marines go over the low wall on Blue Beach No.2 on Okinawa on 1 April. The division and its parent III Am-phibious Corps made large first-day ground gains to the east.

elements of the 7th Infantry Division reached the eastern coast,severing the island.4 Apr —The 6th Marine Division attacked north up the west coastroad; it was relieved of responsibility for the Yontan airstrip bythe 29th Marines in III Amphibious Corps reserve. The 1st Ma-rines, 1st Marine Division, occupied the Katchin Peninsula.5 Apr—The Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance Battalion land-ed on the northern coast of Tsugen Shima, Eastern Islands, theonly one of the six islands guarding the entrances to Okinawa'seastern beaches that was defended in strength.6 Apr—The 96th Infantry Division opened its attack against the

form into line 500 yards offshore for their first-wave chargeagainst the western beaches of Okinawa on 1 April 1945.


Famed Scripps-Howard newspaper columnist and combat cor-respondent Ernie Pyle, hatless and sharing around his pack ofcigarettes at left center, talks with 1st Division Marines at an

Shun defenses in the southern sector of the island.6-7 Apr—Japanese air units from Kyushu launched the first of10 major kamikaze attacks on Allied shipping off Okinawa.7 Apr—During the Battle of the East China Sea, planes of TaskForce 58 sank the superbattleship Yamato, a cruiser, and fourdestroyers, ending all chances of a Japanese sea attack onOkinawa.7 Apr—The first F4U of Marine Aircraft Group 31 landed onYontan airfield.7 Apr—Elements of the Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance Bat-talion scouted the remainder of the Eastern Islands —Takabanare,Hamahika, and Kutake Shima.8 Apr—The 29th Marines, 6th Marine Division, moved acrossthe base of the Motobu Peninsula and occupied the villages ofGagusuku and Yamadadobaru.9 Apr—The main body of the 27th Infantry Division went ashoreon the Orange Beaches near Kadena.9 Apr—The Kadena airfield was adjudged ready for its firstplanes, and Marine Aircraft Wing 33 began tactical operationsfrom the field immediately.10 Apr—The 2d Battalion, 29th Marines, seized Unten Ko onthe Motobu Peninsula where the Japanese had established a sub-marine and torpedo boat base.10-11 Apr—Elements of the 27th Infantry Division assaulted andcaptured Tsugen Shima, the only defended position in theEastern Islands.

Okinawa roadside rest stop on 8 April Soon after this picture,Pyle was instantly killed by a blast ofJapanese machine gun fireon lejima, an island adpwent to Okinawa in the Ryukyus chain.

12-14 Apr —The Japanese launched coordinated counterattacksagainst the XXIV Corps line, coinciding with a second roundof major aerial suicide attacks.13 Apr —The Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance Battalion occupiedMinna Shima, an island lying off the northwest coast of Okina-wa, in preparation for an assault on Ic Shima.14 Apr—The 4th and 29th Marines launched a coordinated at-tack on the Motobu Peninsula inland in an easterly direction

Overcoming a line of well-camouflaged cave positions preparedby the Japanese around the Okinawan capital of Naha was a bit-ter task for 1st Division Marines, here with rifles aimed at theanticijjated survivors of an explosive charge in one such cave.

Portitudine, Summer 1994 21

Fighting for control of Okinawa continued for three months,into both May andJune. Here, on 6 May, Marines man a machine

and west and southwest from the center of the peninsula, respec-tively.16 Apr—The 6th Marine Division launched a full-scale attackfrom three sides against Japanese positions on the Motobu Penin-sula; Companies A and C, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, took pos-session of Yae Take, the key terrain feature of the peninsula.16-21 Apr—The 77th Infantry Division assaulted and capturedIc Shima, an island lying off the northwest coast of Okinawa.19 Apr—The X)UV Corps launched a three-division assaultagainst the Shun defenses in the southern sector of the island.20 Apr —The 4th and 29th Marines reached the north coast ofMotobu Peninsula having eliminated all organized resistance onthe peninsula.24 Apr —TheJapanese withdrew to the second ring of the Shundefensive zone.28 Apr—The 3d Battalion, 165th Infantry, 27th Division, cap-tured Machinato airfield.30 Apr—The 1st Marine Division was attached to the XXIVCorps, and began moving south to relieve the 27th Army Di-vision.

2 May—The 27th Division officially passed to Island Commandcontrol. The 165th Infantry was assigned responsibility for the 1stMarine Division sector, and the 105th and 106th Infantry weresent north to relieve the 6th Marine Division on Motobu Penin-sula and in the areas farther north.

3-4 May—TheJapanese launched an all-out ground and air at-tack on XXIV Corps positions and U.S. shipping off the island.Marine aircraft and antiaircraft gunners as well as units of the1st Marine Division assisted in repulsing the assault.3-4 May—The III Amphibious Corps took over the western sector

gun atop a position called "King's Hill." On 3-4 May, theJapanese had launched a desperate, final ground andair attack.

of the Tenth Army front in the southern portion of the island.3-9Jun— The 8th Marines, 2d Marine Division, secured IheyaShima and Aguni Shima west of Okinawa. Immediate steps weretaken to set up air warning and fighter direction installationsto strengthen the defensive perimeter surrounding Okinawa.4Jun—The III Amphibious Corps boundary was shifted to thewest, and the 1st Marine Division—attacking in the narrowedIII Amphibious Corps zone—was made responsible for cuttingoff Oroku Peninsula, capturing Itoman, reducing the Kunishiand Mezado ridge positions, and driving to the southernmostpoint of the island, Ara Saki. The XXIV Corps was assigned thecommanding Yaeju Dake-Yuza Dake escarpment.4Jun —The 4th Marines spearheaded an amphibious assault bythe 6th Marine Division against Oroku Peninsula in the south-west sector of the island.llJun—MajGen LouisE. Woods, USMC, assumed commandof both the Tactical Air Force and the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing.l3Jun—MajGen Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC, command-ing the 6th Marine Division, announced that all organizedresistance on Oroku Peninsula had ceased.

l4Jun —The 6th Reconnaissance Company secured Senaga Shi-ma, an island lying off the southeast coast of Oruku Peninsula.15 Jun—The 8th Marines, 2d Marine Division, arrived on theisland and was attached to the 1st Marine Division.17 Jun—The XXIV Corps gained control of all the command-ing ground on the Yaeju Dake-Yuza Dake escarpment, its primaryobjective.

17 Jun—A 7,000-foot runway at Yontan airfield was completed.18 Jun — LtGen Simon B. Buckner, USA, Tenth Army com-mander, was killed while observing the progress of the 8th Ma-


MajGen Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., commanding general of the6th Marine Division, consults his maps during the fighting on

rines' first attack on the island. MajGen Roy S. Geiger, USMC,senior troop commander, assumed temporary command of theTenth Army and directed its final combat operations.18 Jun—Tank-infantry teams of the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines,crushed the last organized resistance on Kunishi Ridge.2lJun—Organized resistance in the HI Amphibious Corps zoneended when units of the 1st Marine Division secured Hill 81,and the 29th Marines — in the 6th Division zone — swept throughAra Sake, the southernmost point of the island.21 Jun — MajGen Geiger, commanding the Tenth Army, declaredthe island secured.22 Jun—A formal ceremony attended by representatives of all

Oroku Peninsula. By 13 June, the future Commandant couldannounce that organized resistance on the peninsula had ceased

elements of the Tenth Army marked the official end of resistanceby the Japanese Thirty-Second Army.22Jun —The 1st and 6th Marine Divisions and the 7th and 96thArmy Divisions were ordered to conduct a sweep to the north.Ten days were allotted to complete the mopping up-action.23 Jun — Gen Joseph W. Stilwell, USA, formally relieves Maj-Gen Geiger as Commanding General, Tenth Army.25 Jun—The Tenth Army launched its four division clean-updrive to the north.26-3OJun —The Fleet Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance Bat-talion captured Kume Shima, the last and largest island ofOkinawa Gunto. Eli 775L1]

A Marine convoy is halted on Okinawa's Motobu Peninsula, the Japanese strongholds on the peninsula were overpowered by full-heavily defended site of an enemy submarine and torpedo base. scale attacks by the 4th and 29th Marines on 14-16 April.

MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL CENTERBUILDING 58, WASI-IING1DN NAVY YARD

901 M STREET, SOUTHEASTWASHINGTON, D.C. 20374-5040

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

Students Given Shepherd, Gridley Memorial Fellowshipsby Charles R. Smith

Secretary, Marine Corps Historical Foundation

T HE MARINE CORPS HistoricalFoundation recently announced the

award of the first Gen Lemuel C.Shepherd, Jr., Memorial Dissertation andthe LtCol Lily H. Gridley MemorialMasters' Thesis Fellowships for the1994-1995 academic year.

The Shepherd Fellowship, named tohonor the 20th Commandant, went toDavid B. Crist of Florida State Universityat Tallahassee for a doctoral dissertationthat will examine Earnest Will, the oper-ation carried out in the Persian Gulf dur-ing the late 1980s to protect Kuwaititankers.

Dawn L. Tepe of Abilene ChristianUniversity was awarded the Gridley Fellow-ship for a thesis on women Marines inWorld War I. The Gridley Fellowshiphonors a pioneering Marine and the firstwoman to serve as a judge advocate in theMarine Corps.

David Crist's dissertation will considerthe accomplishments of Central Com-mand in the Persian Gulf as a prelude to

the actions taken during Desert Shield andDesert Storm. These involved a numberof activities from escorting Kuwaiti tankersto assaulting fortified Iranian oil plat-forms. The study will examine the innova-tive tactics developed by Marine units tocope with what has been called a guerril-la war at sea.

D AWN TPE POSSESSES background inthe study of the World War I peri-

od in American history and has severalscholarly papers and publications to hercredit. Her thesis will provide a narrativeof the background and development ofthe women reserve program, as well as asocial history of the 305 women whoserved in the Marine Corps during theGreat War.

Jefferson P. Marquis of Ohio StateUniversity received the Foundation's annu-al Dissertation Fellowship for a study ofthe American and South Vietnamesepacification program in the four years fol-lowing Tet 1968 based on American,

South Vietnamese, and Communistsources. His analysis will focus on a com-parison of two provinces — Long An in theMekong Delta, where the South Viet-namese government took the lead with theU.S. Army and civilian support, andQuang Nam in I Corps where the key fea-ture was the use of Marine Combined Ac-tion Platoons.

Full annual Master's Thesis Fellowshipswere awarded to Benjamin H. Kristy ofKansas State University, for an operation-al assessment of Marine Corps night fight-ers in the Korean War, and to David J.Ulbrich of Ball State University for a studyof the creation and eventual employmentof defense battalions under MajGen-Comdt Thomas Holcomb. A partialMaster's Fellowship was granted to MarineMaj James R. Davis, who currently is as-signed to the Amphibious Vehicle TestBranch and who also is studying at theUniversity of San Diego. His thesis willprovide a historical perspective of the tac-tical development of Marine Corps trackedamphibious vehicles. L11775E1
