Capture of Peleliu: Bravery on the Beach - September ‘98 World War II Feature

At that very moment, the enemy artillery, machine-gun and small-arms fire seemed to be at its height. The mortars were dropping down upon the beach all around that man. With all of the enemy fire being directed on that area, it startled me to see a man ignore it completely and unflinchingly continue to walk in our direction. At the same time, he was screaming at the troops lying huddled together on the beach.

His yell still rings in my ears today. He screamed, “Get the hell off this beach or I’ll shoot you!” He was raising hell with those of us on that beach. As he got closer, I noticed he was a major. He had on his insignia, and it surprised me that a senior officer would be there. I had never seen him before. He was armed with a Tommy gun, had a Jap shovel across one shoulder, was bloodied and mud-encrusted, and he was kicking and screaming. Just before he got to me, all I could think of was that this crazy SOB was going to kill me if I didn’t get the hell off that beach. I ignored everything else and got the hell off that beach, which undoubtedly saved my life. I learned later that just moments after my buddies and I had been moved off the beach by that major, a tremendous mortar barrage had come down right where we had been lying.

When I got up and moved, so did others of my section and company, mortarmen and riflemen–everybody started moving off that beach. It was a complete exodus, in fact. All I can say, really, is that if that major had not been clearing that beach on his own, I would have been dead right there at the age of 16.

That same night, right after midnight, my outfit came under a heavy mortar barrage. I was hit and evacuated to a ship offshore. After being treated for several days, I was interviewed by one of the Navy doctors. He indicated that I did not have to go back to the island, but if I did not do so, I might well end up in a different company. In those days, in the Marine Corps, particularly in a rifle company, it was like a family. You knew the people, and you felt safer being with them. Accordingly, I chose to go back ashore and found my outfit in the process of relieving the 1st Marines, who had been pretty badly shot up.

I finished the campaign on Peleliu with the A/1/7, and from April to June 1945, I was involved in three months of intense combat on Okinawa. Subsequently, I went into North China with the 7th Marines.

During the Korean War, I was in H Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, and commanded a rifle platoon much of the time. I was there from October 1952 to November 1953 and was promoted to gunnery sergeant. I retired from the Marine Corps in 1962 after 20 years of service but returned in 1966 during the Vietnam War, serving with the 3rd Tank Battalion in the Dong Ha area.

I have witnessed many acts of bravery and heroism on the part of Marines in combat situations. But never in all of my 221/2 years of active duty as a Marine did I observe a man with more guts than that unknown major exhibited. His heroic conduct on that beach at Peleliu stuck in my mind. It had a decided effect on me, especially after I became an NCO and was called upon to lead and train young Marines during two tours at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, Calif., as a drill instructor.

The major had proved to me that you do not try to win your troops over by being a nice guy. If the major had acted thus on the beach at Peleliu, if he had been there explaining the situation and pleading with us, we would have all been dead. On the other hand, he put it to us bluntly: “Get your asses off this beach or I’ll kill you. Move.” In my mind, he meant what he said, and that is how I led and trained my troops in later years. That incident immediately came to mind when I was interviewed a few years back by Bill D. Ross, who wrote Peleliu: Tragic Triumph. Ross asked me to tell him about something that stood out in my mind concerning Peleliu. I told him about the conduct of that major early on the morning of D-day on Orange Beach 3.