TEARS FILLING HIS EYES, MCCOY WENT ON TO DESCRIBE HOW EASTERBROOK, WITH COMPLETE DISREGARD OF HIS OWN SAFETY, ATTEMPTED TO CARRY A BADLY WOUNDED MARINE OFFICER TO SAFETY THROUGH A HAIL OF JAPANESE SMALL ARMS AND MORTAR FIRE.
‘I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD,’ MCCOY SAID, ‘I DON’T KNOW HOW ANYONE COULD HAVE LIVED THROUGH THAT. WHEN HE STOOD UP, WITH LIEUTENANT DONALDSON SLUNG OVER HIS SHOULDER, I KNEW THEY WERE BOTH AS GOOD AS DEAD.’
MARINE FIRST LIEUTENANT ARTHUR M. DONALDSON DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED DURING THE BATTLE, STRUCK A THIRD TIME BY ENEMY FIRE AS EASTERBROOK TRIED TO CARRY HIM TO SAFETY.
THE STORY CAME OUT IN SEATTLE AS THE TWO MARINE VETERANS OF GUADALCANAL WERE PREPARING TO BRING TO A CLOSE THE SECOND WAR BOND TOUR. UNTIL TODAY, MCCOY HAD BELIEVED EASTERBROOK TO BE DEAD, AND HAD NOT RECOGNIZED THE SLIGHT MARINE OFFICER ACCOMPANYING THE TOUR IN A PUBLIC RELATIONS CAPACITY AS THE COMBAT CORRESPONDENT WHO HAD BEEN WILLING TO LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR A FELLOW MARINE ON GUADALCANAL.
THIS REPORTER ASKED MARINE LIEUTENANT WILLIAM C. DUNN, A GUADALCANAL DOUBLE ACE AND HOLDER OF THE NAVY CROSS, THE NATION’S SECOND HIGHEST DECORATION FOR VALOR, WHO IS ALSO ON THE WAR BOND TOUR, HOW EASTERBROOK’S EXPLOITS COULD HAVE GONE UNNOTICED.
‘MOST HEROISM GOES UNNOTICED,’ DUNN REPLIED. ‘FOR EVERY MARINE YOU SEE WITH A MEDAL, THERE ARE A DOZEN MARINES WHO DID AT LEAST AS MUCH WHEN NO ONE WAS AROUND TO SEE THEM DO IT. EVERYONE WHO WAS ON BLOODY RIDGE DESERVED A MEDAL.’
ALL THE GUADALCANAL HEROES CONFESSED THEY WERE HAPPY THE WAR BOND TOUR IS ABOUT OVER. MCCOY WILL REJOIN HIS MARINE RAIDER BATTALION IN THE PACIFIC. EASTERBROOK, ‘THE BRAVEST MAN ON BLOODY RIDGE’ IS IN THE PROCESS OF TRAINING A DETACHMENT OF COMBAT CORRESPONDENTS IN LOS ANGELES. HE WILL LEAD THEM OVERSEAS WHEN THEIR TRAINING IS COMPLETED. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF CAPTAIN CHARLES M. GALLOWAY, WHO IS RETURNING TO THE FIGHTER SQUADRON HE COMMANDED ON GUADALCANAL, THE MARINE ACES ARE BEING ASSIGNED TO VARIOUS TRAINING BASES IN THE UNITED STATES TO TRAIN THE NEXT GENERATION OF FIGHER PILOTS.
END END END
CAPTION, PIC ONE ACCOMPANYING: (L-R) MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER STAFF SERGEANT THOMAS J. MCCOY USMCR AND THE MAN HE DECLARES WAS THE ‘BRAVEST MAN ON BLOODY RIDGE, 2ND LT ROBERT F. EASTERBROOK, USMC, (PHOTO BY ROBERTA DAIMAN, SEATTLE TIMES)
CAPTION, PIC TWO ACCOMPANYING: MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER STAFF SERGEANT THOMAS J ‘MACHINE GUN’ MCCOY USMC (LEFT) AND NAVY CROSS WINNER 1ST LT WILLIAM C. DUNN, USMCR, FLANK 2ND LT ROBERT F. EASTERBROOK, USMCR, THE MARINE COMBAT CORRESPONDENT MCCOY SAYS WAS THE BRAVEST MAN ON BLOODY RIDGE. (PHOTO BY ROBERTA DAIMAN, SEATTLE TIMES)
[FOUR]
=TOP SECRET=
Eyes Only – The Secretary of the Navy
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL TO SECNAV
Brisbane, Australia
Saturday 14 November 1942
Dear Frank:
Word just reached here that the battleships Washington and South Dakota have sunk the Japanese battleship Kirishima, even though the South Dakota apparently was pretty badly hit in the process. I’d like to think that Admiral Dan Callahan somehow knows about this. I was pretty upset when I heard he was killed the day before. Revenge is sweet.
The more I get into this Fertig in the Philippines business-specifically, the more I have learned from Lt Col Jack NMI Stecker about the efficacy of a well run guerrilla operation-the more I become convinced that it’s worth a good deal of effort and expense.
Where it stands right now is that a young Marine officer, Lieutenant Kenneth McCoy, whom they call ‘Killer’, by the way, just arrived here. He has already made the Makin Island Marine Raider operation, and went ashore on Buka from another submarine when we replaced the Marines there. He is as expert in rubber boat operations as they come, in other words. He sees no problem in getting ashore from a submarine off Mindanao.
He and Stecker have come up with list of materiel they feel should go to Fertig, essentially, and in this order, gold, radios, medicine and small arms and ammunition. Because of the small stature of the average Filipino, both feel that the US Carbine is the proper weapon. I have the radios and the carbines and ammunition for them, and have been promised an array of medicines whenever I want them. I have also been promised a submarine, probably the USS Narwahl, which is a cargo submarine. The promise came from CINCPAC himself, who shares my belief that any guerrilla operation in the Philippines should be supported on strategic, tactical and moral grounds.