Below is a great story about Doug Munro, the only Coast Guardsman to
receive the Medal of Honor, and his childhood friend Mike. Enjoy:
Sixty years ago this week, U.S. Coast Guard Signalman Douglas A.
Munro found himself on a boat near the edge of Guadalcanal. The
Japanese were building an airfield on the obscure island in the
South Pacific.
American naval carriers dropped off thousands of Marines to
neutralize the airbase.
Guadalcanal was a miserable, malaria-plagued jungle infested with
giant lizards and furry spiders. And enemy snipers and air raiders.
The Marines on shore survived on Spam and boll weevil-ridden rice.
Two weeks after their initial landing, they captured the airstrip.
But the bloody battles and sleepless nights would not end for
another six months. Twenty-two-year-old Munro himself would never
set foot on Guadalcanal. But the Washington state native helped 500
men escape from the hellish island, and after six decades, his
actions continue to inspire generations of Marines and Coast Guard
officers.
On Sept. 27, 1942, more than two dozen Japanese bombers launched an
air raid over the Matanikau River, which formed the western edge of
the Marine perimeter. Lt. Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller and the Marines
of the 7th Regiment were pinned on the river bank. The embattled
Marines had spelled out the word "HELP" in the sand. A scout/dive
bomber spotted the plea.
As coxswain of a 36-foot Higgins boat, Douglas Munro took charge of
a group of 24 vessels near Point Cruz, where the Marines waited to
be rescued. President Franklin Roosevelt described the scene in a
citation honoring Munro, the Coast Guard's lone winner of the
Congressional Medal of Honor:
"After making preliminary plans for the evacuation of nearly five
hundred beleaguered Marines, Munro, under constant strafing by enemy
machine guns on the island and at great risk of his life, daringly
led five of his small craft toward the shore. As he closed the
beach, he signaled the others to land and then in order to draw the
enemy's fire and protect the heavily loaded boats, he valiantly
placed his craft, with its two small guns, as a shield between the
beachhead and the Japanese."
Minutes after the last Marine was safely on board, Munro was struck
in the skull by enemy gunfire. He lived long enough to ask his
shipmates one last selfless question: "Did they get off?"
I learned about Munro's heroism several years ago while living in
Seattle, not far from Munro's childhood home and burial site in Cle
Elum. I interviewed Mike Cooley, an 80-year-old vet and childhood
friend, who visited Munro's grave twice a day and maintained the
worn American flag that stood over the site where Munro and his
parents are buried. Since the flag was not lit, Cooley had taken it
upon himself to raise and lower the flag each dawn and dusk for more
than three decades. He walked a few miles from his home to the
cemetery to do his daily duty; when he battled pneumonia, his
daughter drove him to the site. Cooley worried about whether someone
would take his place when he passed, but cheerily told me that he
was "sure someone will follow in my footsteps and take over when I'm
gone."
In July 1999, Cooley died after a long illness. Two months later,
spurred by several passionate chief petty officers, the Coast Guard
(whose motto, "Semper Paratus," means "always ready") made good on
Cooley's faith. At a ceremony attended by 800 people from across the
country, the service erected a new flagpole with accent lights to
keep Old Glory flying 24 hours a day at Munro's burial ground.
Civilian and military volunteers helped raise funds for the project;
local construction companies donated materials.
The celebration took place, Master Chief Petty Officer Vincent W.
Patton III wrote, "under the clearest sky that the State of
Washington had ever seen. I recall telling someone that the
traditional grey skies gave way to a picture perfect day only
because Doug Munro and Mike Cooley wanted to make sure they had a
perfect view of the action."
The legacy of Doug and Mike has been kept alive by the dedicated
lamplighters of military history. We owe them all immeasurably for
their resolution to serve, to sacrifice, and to remember.
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