PELELIU 1944: WWII BATTLE FOR BLOODY NOSE RIDGE IN PICTURES
NOTE: Please be sure to read the COMMENTS section. Many have left information and inquiries there. Let’s see if we can help them out.
WAR AND PEACE THROUGH MY FATHER’S EYES
When I inherited my father’s Marine Corps WWII Service album, I went quickly through it, thinking to myself how can I possibly keep this pictorial journal of war and death? For the first two years, it was hidden away in a back shelf, but somehow, it kept calling to me. Finally, after four years, I gave it to a friend three states away for “safekeeping.” But within two months, for reasons beyond reason, the war album showed up in my mailbox. So, if it was meant to stay with me, then why? After considerable and deep thought, it came to me to share these remnants of war as experienced through the eyes of one man—my father.
As the ideas began to form and shape in my mind, it occurred to me that by sharing these snapshots and notes there might be information useful for genealogical searches, for instance. But, most importantly my generation perhaps can gain better perspective and insight into what our parents memories contained, as we deal with the violence and stripping of our constitutional rights today. This is my way of turning something negative into a positive tool in some way. If only one person out there finds this information useful in a positive way, I will feel my own mission accomplished, and perhaps this album will have finally found it’s ultimate purpose.
I am forever proud of my fathers courage—he is a hero to me, but he came away from it knowing that war was not the answer. The men and women who have served this great country did so believing that they would ensure freedom for their families and their descendants. We cannot let them down by allowing our government in ANY generation rewrite our Constitution to their own ends.
Please wake, up, America.
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I was inside a huge crater with two other guys when the enemy opened fire on us. The first explosion dropped to our left and the second one, to our right. We knew this was a ‘pinning’ strategy. We waited for the third explosion,but it never came; this is when we realized that the .30-caliber water-cooled machine guns we had been aiming at them were jammed! We were helpless. All around us, the crossfire was lighting up the sky, and it was paralyzing.
It was the next day, September 19, 1944, when we were all walking toward our target, Bloody Nose Ridge, when I was hit by fire in the left side. I was down and could not move, but I felt no pain, no pain at all. Then I was hit two times in the left arm, and while the medics were trying to work on me, the bottom of my left foot was split open by shrapnel. I yelled in pain this time; ‘Oh, God! My foot, my foot!’ I heard someone say ‘Damn your foot! Your guts are hanging out!” There must have been a force that very much wanted me to make it through, because everything that should have happened, didn’t happen. With our guns jammed, a third missile would have got us for sure, but it never came. Without exception, the hospital ship moved out to sea at night, but for reasons that could never be explained, that ship came back to shore to get me that night.
In April of 1998, just months before he passed on, my father finally talked about the war. I am grateful that he passed the above account down to me before he left.
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“If my soldiers began to think, not one of them would remain in the ranks.” Frederick the Great
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Photos were likely taken by a war photographer–I do not think my father took any of the Peleliu war shots, although he was in the middle of most of the action. Newspaper accounts and notes on photos used terms we might consider unacceptable today.. I have not altered them in any way–it was all part of that era.
FELLOW FRIENDS; FELLOW ENEMIES: 1943-1944 Moments of Innocence.
PELELIU, BLOODY NOSE RIDGE: September 1944 Innocence lost.
(WARNING: These are not location shots from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” They are reality and they are graphic in nature.
MARTY’S USMC LOG AND DIARY: 1944-45
Marty was wounded only a few days into the battle so entries are rather sparse. Includes notice to his parents and newspaper draft article (Excerpt from interview: “Shortly after I landed on Peleliu on D-day, I became separated from my outfit and, before I realized it, I was pinned down by a sniper…..”.
Bob Hope USO Tour: I have identified Mr. Hope, Jerry Cologna, and actress Frances Langford (with the help of an aunt). I have not identified the others. Do you know?
Submitted on 2011/04/19 at 9:14 am
Larry Weathersby “Regarding your questions about Bob Hope’s performers, my mother wrote, ‘Patty Thomas was the dancer and looks very much like the lady in photo…And USO performance was Aug. 7, 1944.’ ”
ON THE BEACH AT PELELIU: An Inspirational story by Brooking Rouse Gex I found this photocopied published story in my Father’s USMC Album. It appeared in `Earth Angel` magazine in 1996 and was authored by a Medic on Peleliu at the time my father was there and wounded. The Medic`s name was Brooking Rouse Gex. I will never know if my dad was one of the men on a stretcher attended by medic Brooking Gex, but he did tell me that after he was shot, he had an out-of-body experience and remembered `standing by` to get back into his body.
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Oath Keepers is an association of currently serving military, veterans, and peace officers who will fulfill the oath we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
DOCUMENTARY: THE GROUND TRUTH: AFTER THE KILLING ENDS “…takes an unflinching look at the training and dehumanization of U.S. soldiers, and how they struggle to come to terms with it when they come back home.”
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03/16/2009: I am starting a Peleliu Honor List for any soldier I can find who fought in the battle on Peleliu. If you have/had a loved one who was on Peleliu during World War II, please contact me and with permission, I will post here.
Edward A Amaral, Gy Sgt. – Bridgewater, Mass.
Squad Leader, Marine Assault Rifle Co. B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division
Bronze Star (w/Combat V) Purple Heart (Peleliu)
Robert C. Baker Corporal - Madelia, Minnesota.
Squad Leader, Marine Assault Rifle 11th Marines I Co 3rd Battalion 1st Marine Div (Served from Cape Gloucester thru Okinawa)
Charles Bernard Bailey, Corporal (T.W.) (Line) Hingham, Montana
Rifle Expert & Scout Observer
Kenneth Barnes, Corporal, 1st Marine Div.
KIA at Bloody Nose Ridge 19 September 1944, age 20 years
Veteran of the Canal and the Cape before Peleliu
Raymond Wesley Bunce, PFC Herkimer, NY
81st Wild Cat Division
James D. Burkhalter, Pltn Sgt
Fleet tank commander
Purple Heart recipient, Bronze Star recipient
Patrick Crisafulli, Corporal—Massachusetts
Died after action aboard USS Ormsby 09/20/1944—buried at sea.
3rd Battalion, 1st Marine division, HQ&S, 5th Reg.
Me Gene Crunkleton
3rd Armored Amph Tank Battalion, Co. D, 1st Marine division
Warren Edwin Dalton, PFC
L Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division,[see comments below]
James Edward Ellis, Corporal
“This is an eyewitness account of the World War Two Pacific Battle of Peleliu by Corporal James Edward Ellis. My father, James Ellis, was a member of the First Marine Division. He fought in four major Pacific battles: Guadal Canal, New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa, where he was wounded on the third day of battle and received the Purple Heart.”
Patrick L. Finelli, Sgt. Co. K, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division.
Combat Veteran
Stephen J.Glaud 374th Platoon
Killed in Action[see comments below]
John C. Gravitt, Lt , 1st Division, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines
Killed in Action
Navy Cross recipient for his actions about Sept 17.
Robert Herrmann, Pfc
B Company, 6th Amphibian Tractor Battalion (Provisional)
Killed in Action
Otto Hesselbarth
1st Platoon A Company 710th Tank Battalion 81st Inf Div
Killed in Action
Please see Seth Erazmus’s 04/29/10 “Comments” entry to read more detail into Mr. Hesselbarth’s death along with four others riding a tank on Peleliu.
Patrick Walls Klein, Pfc.
Fox Co. 2/5
Killed in Action
Michael A. Lazaro, Pvt.
Killed in Action 1944
1st Marine Pioneers, 1st Marine Division
Purple Heart recipient
Presidential Unit Citation
Lafayette “Lafe” J. Mattingly, Corporal
1st Marine Division
Silver Star recipient
Please see Marcia Mattingly‘s 12/05/11 entry in the Comments section below to read more detail on her father Lafayette Mattingly.
Thomas Foster McCarthy
8th 155 mm gun battalion fmf
W C “Bill” McKibben, Pltn Sgt
Purple Heart recipient
Frank T. Mezzacapa, PVT
L Co, 3/7, 1st Marine Division
Killed in Action
From Larry Weathersby’s 3/30/11 Comment: “During the Peleliu battle Frank was in a foxhole and took a direct hit from the shelling they were getting. His death was instant.”
John Jay Paul, Sgt.
Co. B. 1st Batallion, 1st Marine Division.
Please see George H. Edwards’ 05/03/10 “Comments” entry to read more on his uncle Paul .
Alfred “Dick” Perry
B Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines Pelelieu
Killed in Action on Okinawa June 10, 1945 after transfer to C Co, 1st Bat, 1st Marines
Co. G, 2nd Battalion., 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Purple Heart recipient
Oscar Edwin Reece
8th 155 mm gun battalion fmf
Carlton Robert Rouh, LT 1919-1977: Served in World War II in the United States Marine Corps Reserves a First Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. “
World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Joseph E. Schell, Pfc. at Pelelieu
Later KIA on Okinawa
Doyle M. Smith, Cpl - Tennessee
“L” Company 3rd Bat,1st Div, 5th Marine Reinforced,
Purple Heart recipient
KIA 29 Sept 1944
Joe Lloyd South PFC
Killed in Action 1944
Co B., 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
Purple Heart recipient
Presidential Unit Citation
Allen W. Totherow, PFC
81st Infantry “Wildcat” Division
Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge awarded for mission at Bloody Nose Ridge
John Otto Ward - (Philadelphia, PA)
1st Mar Div, Weapons Co., Fleet Marine Force (rifleman)
Bill Weathersby, Jr. SGT 1924-2009
1st Mar Div, 12th Defense Battalion, Battery “C”
Mr. Weathersby’s USMC scrapbook
Glenn Lewis Wood 1925-1996
1st Marines, K Company, 3rd battalion, 5th Regiment- Tacoma, WA
Julius Ray Woods, Private
1st Division Marine
Also see Comments Section below for additional info
THESE DREAMS
I have kept dream journals since 1983 and have found that some have manifested over days but some even years after the dream, as suggested in my 2007 post “Dreaming The Stock Market Blues” , below.
I create this blog to post those rare dreams/visions that seem to me too real, not related to personal issues or “flights of fancy.”
JUMP TO: Latest entry
DREAMING THE STOCK MARKET BLUES
(Originally logged August 2007)
I do not generally reflect on dreams that were recorded by me years or even months before unless events appear to be moving in their direction; then I really pay attention. The importance of keeping a dream journal was highlighted big time for me when, in 1998, I learned that a dream I had recorded 12 years earlier almost to the month occurred in so much detail in real life.
The dream was “about a son of a farming family named ‘Machado’ who had just been killed in a end-over-end tractor accident after drifting off a hill. I am hovering over a small group of women in the farmhouse who are grieving upon hearing the news. This was a prominent local family.” Twelve years later, my son came into the house and announced that a guy who was a new acquaintance of his had just died in an tractor accident on the family farm. His name was “Mike Machado” he said, and that he had lost control of equipment he was riding.** Agh! My mind went straight to that dream of 12 years before and could not have described the scene better. This WAS the son of a “prominent local family” as well—at the time of that dream in 1986, I did not recall anyone named “Machado” and did not realize until much later (I did not keep up on politics back then) that this was the son of then Senator Mike Machado from Linden, CA! The only “surreal” part was that I was not seen by the grieving women.
So, the reason I am going to post the following dream, which occurred about one and one-half years ago (12/25/2005), is because I see “symptoms” manifesting in the realm of the stock market. It was as follows:
“I walk into a place called the ‘Daily Grind’, but it is not the cheerful bustling place it was. I am accompanied by a woman who guides me there and then starts scribbling notes frantically onto a notepad as she watches a screen before us. This causes me to look closely at a young man in front of us who is operating some sort of ‘information’ screen, watching numbers tick by on the screen and then plugging in some numbers that he is seeing into a program. At first, I have some trouble focusing on what is on the screen, but then it gets clearer. I see that this has to do with the stock market. I am stunned to realize that what I am seeing is a sudden and unexpected drop in the market, and it is in the range of 1126 points and not just a few hundred. I look at my ‘guide’ who is still writing on the notepad. I realize that the people at the Daily Grind are standing completely still and are not receiving their checks***. She is watching out for mine. “
(***California begins issuing IOUs Feb 2009)
I saw a news report stating that the DOW had dropped 387 points today and is a total of about 730 points down from its highest close. This inches more and more toward “1126 points” (or possibly denoting a date such as 11/26?) so I am posting this 19-month-old or so dream here. Ah, but it is only a dream…..
I am seriously thinking about gold…
**From Rural California Report Oct. 1998 the following: “The death of (Michael) Christopher Machado happened in the early evening of August 18 (1998), near his family’s farm in Linden. While traveling along a county road, the rear wheel of Machado’s John Deere tractor slid off the road, and the entire tractor turned over in the creek pinning him under two feet of water. Around 5:30 P.M., a motorist stopped and immediately called 911 after discovering Machado beneath the overturned tractor. Despite emergency efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
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“The Dark Blue Passenger Plane”:
Night of 07-31/8-01 2008:
I am talking with some ‘coworkers’ in a building several stories up. Suddenly, a passenger jet painted dark blue flies by the window and I’m thinking that it appears too low not to hit something. We watch as the dark blue passenger jet slams into a strip mall. I watch it slide sideways (or come in sideways) on impact, destroying the buildings and all the people. The only store still standing seems to be an “anchor” store, a bigger store on the right side of the mall (seen as on the left in dream). This building is shaped somewhat like a Taco Bell fast food place or similar southwest adobe architecture. I keep dialing 911 but I either get a wrong number or interference in the line. As the scene settles somewhat, I run to what would be the left side of the strip mall (to the right from my vantage point) and notice that the jet had not penetrated this exterior wall, which had formed a side of what was a ’country kitchen’-like restaurant (remnants of gingham designs). Reminded me of a place I visited many years ago called Lincoln Village mall.
Update 04/04/11:
Southwest Grounds About 80 Planes After Mishap
Southwest Grounds About 80 Planes After Mishap April 04 2011
“What caused part of the fuselage to rupture on the 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 was a mystery, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Saturday in Yuma to begin an inquiry. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said investigators were going to cut a piece out of the fuselage, which would be studied for fracture patterns. He said they would also examine the plane’s black box and flight recorders, which arrived Saturday at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. “
“Southwest, meanwhile, grounded about 80 similar planes so that they could be inspected, and said that as a result some 300 flights were being canceled Saturday. Airline spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said it was too soon to estimate the cost of grounding a portion of its fleet.”
Update 7/14/09:
- By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer
“Southwest Airlines inspected nearly 200 planes and put them back in the sky Tuesday after a foot-long hole opened in the cabin of an identical jet, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing in West Virginia.”
Update 09/23/11 VIDEO: MARKINGS APPEAR on Southwest Airlines Planes (also see 911 post)
“Pegro”
Night of 12-03/12-04 2008:
As I was waking this a.m., I was still hearing a male voice from a dream. The last words I recall him saying: “Remember! It is not Pedro but Pegro!” The “G” was so emphasized. No idea where this came from but am posting to see if something with that name pops up in the news.
“The Red Number”
Night of 12-13/12-14 2008:
Very real but short and succinct. Written in large red color on a whiteboard: The number 2830 (or 2380).
“Red Number Part II?”
Night of 12/20-21/2008:
Again, in large red color on a whiteboard: Three numbers in a column but only recall the top one: 9.8.
“A doctor in the house”
Night of 01/14-15/2009:
I walk down a hospital hallway looking for a certain patient. Someone points to a medical chart next to a certain door and I take a closer look. A gold plate on the wall first appears to read “Dr. Cipher” but the C turns into a P and becomes “Pipher.” I look at the patient chart. I see just initials: “G” (first name) ”B” (last name). I realize the doctor is to become well known in a famous case or for a certain illess/epidemic in general.
“Aerials over Vietnam”
Night of 03/13-14/2009:
I am one of two passengers in a car driven by a “diplomat.” I think the other passenger (in the middle) is a doctor. We are all in the front seat. The “doctor” insists I put on my seatbelt. After he says that, I look up and see three aerial craft. The lead craft is huge and is shaped like a blimp but with a very long “fin” coming down at the rear and next to that is hanging a Nazi or a Secessionist-type flag. A little behind, flanking this huge airship are two other planes. These appear more like planes do in real life yet there are no markings and the wings are very short in relation to the body. I look below (I guess we are in a “flying car”) and am told we are over Vietnam at this time as part of a “tour” over Southeast Asia.
“Rodwell Tickets”
Morning of 05/01/09
This was seen while in twilight consciousness coming out of sleep. I don’t know anyone named Rodwell, nor to I know of any public affiliation with that name.
I am posting this mainly because it is so far removed from my own waking consciousness and wonder if that name will come up in association with something “to be announced”, so to speak.
“Blimp, Great Hall, and Holograms”:
Night of 08-17/8-18 2009:
“There is much commotion going on in a city so I step into the streets to see what is going on. People are gathering into large groups and discussing some sudden event. I begin to wander into various groups to see what the ruckus is about and learn that there have been ‘sudden upheavals’ in the skies over two or three different cities in the country. [I assume I am in America but not sure]. I return to my ‘home’ and turn on a TV. I watch a ‘live shot’ of a blimp moving over a city and then it suddenly explodes! I think I am watching an event that already took place but when I walk back outside, I watch the skies for a short time and then that same blimp appears and explodes! I am puzzled because I cannot figure out how I saw it on TV before it actually occurred. The blimp explodes while it is over a harbor or riverway of some kind. This river is near a factory or a wharf–the area appears industrial to me. I see no markings on it before the explosion—just silver or similar. I then find myself in a ‘court of law’ and some kind of proceeding is taking place. In various corners of the balcony of this ‘Great Hall of Justice’, I see prominent men standing in the shadows of the corner areas. I go to each one, and each time I am told to ‘remain quiet’ , which frustrates me. So as I grab one by a lapel, I find to my surprise that he is a Hologram! They are all holograms, I find out. I turn to someone who has been ‘following’ me and she starts to speak..” But I either woke up before I heard what she said or I can’t recall–darn!
“Secret Service Screw Up”
Night of 02/23-24/10
I am wandering along an indoor corridor when I come across a group of “Secret Service” personnel. They do not notice me. They are discussing an upcoming event and are working out some worrisome detail that could hinder their efforts. Then, I am “pushed” into the “event” itself and watch as something “goes down” and the “Secret Service” personnel for some reason are being held back by an arm (I do not see the figure attached to the arm). The person they are there to protect is a woman. Chaos ensues.
“Explosive news on Prince Charles”
Night of 05/13/10
Not a dream but more of a “flash vision” just before waking consciousness. Dressed in Scottish attire and standing in a field or sparce forest setting, a sudden and unexpected explosion from underground occurs. [my thought is that this was a metaphor for some "explosive" connection with the BP rig castastrophe, way under the news radar.]
09/19/10
“Big Ben:”
Not a dream but a daytime flash vision of the Big Ben clock in the UK with time set at 11:29. No attendant info came forth but the sense was that of “pay attention.”
11/13/10
“Oak Park and EFTs”
A very vivid dream. I am taken to a place near “Oak Park.” I suddenly find myself being flown in a “flying object” by a pilot connected with “EFTs” (electronic funds transfer machines (?). This pilot actually flies us (I sensed others on this object with me) UNDER a couple of overpasses. This entire “Oak Park” area is caught up in the chaos.
08/17/11
“Pacific Coast Shake“
This was more like a pre-waking “vision”: I see the left side of a multi-story building (maybe three stories) still somewhat under construction. There is tar paper and chicken wire showing on a section that still needs the stucco oe other frontispiece placed over it (bricks nearby). Suddenly the scene starts shaking and part of the structure begins to break off. The words “draper” and “sir (Sur?)” come to mind. I perceive I am in the Santa Cruz, CA area or thereabouts, but definitely near a coast–near water. Then I hear a whisper: “Pay attention.”
Update 08/23/11 Earthquake shook a large region of the East coast (Wash DC/VA) – wrong coast, though.
ABC: Earthquake measured at 5.9 rattles East Coast from Virginia to New Hampshire
“A 5.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the East Coast, rattling people from Martha’s Vineyard to Washington, D.C. to North Carolina, prompting the evacuation of Congressional buildings, slowing rail and air traffic, and taking two nuclear reactors offline.”10/
10/28/11
“Transition”
I am onboard what appears to be an airliner, except that aspects of it appear to be more of a silver colored, lighted cargo carrier. Many people onboard. I seem to have come aboard to bring “clothing” for many as they make their “transition.” Then, the “plane” tips steeply to one side. We know it will crash but just before the “impact”, all of us are “transitioned” into a beautiful place. Many are realizing that their five senses are gone in the sense that they are free of any pain and are fully calm, centered somewhere in a loving ”space.” Two of us (one is me) are finding that we DO still have some sense of touch–we two seem to drift between worlds. I see my (deceased) mother walking through an opening and try to run up behind her to talk with her, but she disappears into a bluish mist. Something pulls me out of this scene.
Then I woke up.
POPPY: A Story of Life Through Death
(Originally posted at Yahoo Geocities, 2001.)
While caregiving for my terminally ill father in 1997 and 1998, I kept a journal of our day-to-day experiences. It was not until months after he passed on that I went back to review the journal. I realized with 20/20 hindsight that a profound Spiritual journey had taken place—one that perhaps could be shared with others as a source of inspiration or as a layman’s guidance into the world of the dying experience, both for the dying and the living.
It is my hope that any reader who might come across this journal will read it and come away with a better understanding of the natural birth-life-death-rebirth cycle we collectively experience and perhaps a brighter view of the our world and its meaning in general.
Interestingly, these journal exerpts highlight observed current events going on at that time that in hindsight, have proven quite relevant to events ongoing in our world today in 2008.
ENTER HERE TO START THE JOURNEY
20 pages
my poor attempt to recreate an 11/02/1998 dream
© 1998-2008
Blogsite: Streams of Consciousness
