One Marine, One Ship

tysknews.com ^ | Oct. 22, 2000 | Vin Suprynowicz

[chickenlips]

Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year.

Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks — five more days to stock up for Halloween?

It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige and Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What they did 58 years ago, they did precisely so their grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.

Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms they fought to leave us, may be a discussion best left for another day. Today we struggle to envision — or, for a few of us, to remember — how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken malarial jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago — the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a eurocentric view. SNIP>>>>>>>>>>>>

[chickenlips]

This is an incredibly inspiring story of American valor against the Japanese in 1942.

Thank you to all the veterans that have served our nation.

[Tell It Right]

Thanks for posting

[Psalm 73]

Another great read is "Guadalcanal Diary".

Thanks and praise to all our veterans.

[SunkenCiv]

• One Marine, One Ship [11/21/2001]
  • Autumn,1942: It came down to one Marine, and one ship.(61 yrs ago) [10/26/2003]
  • G.I. Joe was just a toy, wasn't he? [10/30/2007]
  • In 1942, it came down to one Marine [10/25/2009]
  • One Marine, One Ship [10/26/2015]
  • One Marine, One Ship [10/25/2020]
• Colonel Mitchell Paige [08/11/2019]
  • Legend honored [Col. Mitchell Paige, MOH Guadalcanal ] [11/26/2003]
  • Last Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Guadalcanal USMC Colonel Mitchell Paige has died [11/16/2003]
• This day in History 1942 : U.S. forces invade Guadalcanal [08/07/2007]
  • Battleship Night Action Naval Battle of Guadalcanal November 1942 [11/13/2019]

[ro_dreaming]

What an inspiring, and awe-some (as well as awe-full), story.

Thanks for sharing, I shall share it on my social media today, as well.

[rxh4n1]

“On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant.”

Writer had it backwards. The Japanese were building the airfield and the Americans grasped what that meant.

[FreedomPoster]

Correct. Those Marines took it from the Japanese, essentially complete, and promptly dubbed it Henderson Field after a Marine SBD squadron commander who had died at Midway. Guadalcanal and that field would have been part of a strategic move that would have cut Australia off from the U.S. if allowed to continue.