Transcripts For CSPAN3 Don Brown And Amy Rupertus Peacock Old Breed General 20220926

Acknowledging any World War Two veterans, homefront workers or Holocaust Survivors that we may in person or watching online another online. So lets give them a round of applause. You know, next as part of our tradition, if you know, id like to acknowledge any veterans of any era or any active duty service members, if you would please stand to be recognized for your service to our country. And ive got ive got a little adjustment here, too. And then any veteran of military spouses, would you stand to so we can say thank you to you for what youve done as well. You know, probably the one of the toughest jobs out there, the so so this Evening Service to our country is definitely one of the themes of this focused on general william h. Preparedness and those of you familiar with the museum are are aware that we we try to track anniversaries as they come up. 80 years ago the First Marine Division was completing training in the u. S. Down in north carolina, preparing to deploy to the pacific because this august will be the 80th anniversary of the start of the battle of guadalcanal, which turned into a Grueling Campaign between the american and Imperial Japanese forces, not only on land, on sea and air in the pacific. Now, one of the men who led the First Marine Division id met guadalcanal was general william h. Burtis, whose life career was more than just this first Pivotal Campaign in the pacific. And for most people, not really sure who he was. You dont know much about him and, but but ultimately led first as the assistant Division Commander and then as the Division Commander for over two years in theater from guadalcanal through, peleliu. You know, during that, the First Marine Division was awarded three president ial units, citations. Now, typically described as every of the unit would have been recognized for heroism. Now, he was key to the first two of those three president ial units, citations, which an incredible achievement. Now, tonight, we have with us two guests who coauthor the book were about to hear about, amy robertas peacock, is a granddaughter of general robertas and keeper of the family archives at the sea. What that looks like a family. Its kind of cool. And then shes a graduate of the university of georgias journalism school, and shes written for various newspapers. Her her coconspirator is dawn brown, a former u. S. Navy jag officer and special assistant u. S. Attorney. Now hes written 14 books, including a series on naval just of naval justice, novels of prison zondervan and the expose, a call sign, extortion 17. Thats pretty cool. And why was mustang six . Which i thought was real cool. But exhaust in 17 is kind of neat. Yeah, everybodys got a call sign. The. So with that, let me welcome or join me and welcome to the stage amy and don. We look forward to launching this event. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Hello. Good evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you, michael, for making this happen. And thank to jeremy for all your work. And thank you for everyone for being here and everyone thats online and at cspan. And i appreciate you being here. I hope that you will enjoy the story that and i are about to share. We worked on it for, well, quite a while. A couple of generations actually. And my sisters, who my sisters, kimberly and heather couldnt be here today, but they helped with this greatly. And kimberly, a lot of the research so what don and i have done today is a powerpoint. So im going to share my grandfathers story of pre the pacific. And then im going to hand it over to when the marines land in the im going to hand it over to don to share that story. So for those of you dont know, general william h. Henry were part as was my grandfather. Yeah. He was born in 1918 or 1889 in washington dc to a germanamerican community and lets get this going. This powerpoint. There we go. Whoops. Let me back up and he was died in 1945, so he didnt get to see the end of war. But during his lifetime, he accomplished a lot. Hes most for many things, but id say probably my rifle. The creed of the United States marine he wrote in 1942 after the japanese had bombed us at pearl harbor, he was an expert rifleman and felt as though the young marines, the young recruits his just flooding the system needed to slow down, better understand their rifles before they went out to the pacific. He did two tours in china as ceo of the fourth marines, also known as the china marines in the twenties and thirties. He led the First Marine Division in the pacific, which mike just talked about for quite a while. He was the longest serving division in the pacific during that time the uss apprentice was named in his honor in 1945. Its a naval destroyer, and it served our country. From 1945 to 1973. Theres still an active association on facebook, and they try to meet every year, which is kind of neat. He did lose his first family and scarlett to scarlet fever while he was stationed in china. In peking, china was at the international settlement. And his story has never been told until now. So here we go. He came again from a german family. They immigrated to the states in 1850, landed in washington, dc to join a big germanamerican community that lived, work there and thrive there. These are the patriarchs of the family and bills father on the left, or grandfather bill referred us his his family were retailers in dc and they also they his grandfather a luxury goods store with merchandise from you know europe and his father owned a restaurant and then a cigar store for some reason. Our grandfather, general curtis, decided to go to the military route and he might have been inspired by his his great grandfather who served in the civil war. Im not sure. But he attended mckinley tech and high school in washington as a cadet and. Then he went into the us revenue cutter academy, which is the predecessor to the Coast Guard Academy and he was toured all the world on their summer cruises and he graduated. Second in his class of 14. But upon a medical exam, when he graduated, the doctor said that the coast guard or revenue Cutter School doctor said that he had breast disease and he would die in five years. So heres this young, young kid cadet who had just graduated and he was told he would die in five years. So obviously, that was kind of devastating. He didnt go forward with the revenue cutter service, which he really wanted to do. And he thought about going back to i skip this, but he after he graduated school, he went into the Dc National Guard and he worked there for about three years and he worked in naval gunnery. So he went from there to be cut out of the revenue cutters service academy. And when he was told he would not live. He thought about going back to the national guard, but something inspired him to join the marine corps and give his life whatever left of his life he had to the marine corps. So he joined the marine corps and he got a commission,. 1913th november 1913. He was immediately up to join the rifle, so i guess he was an expert rifleman and a couple classmates of his picked up for the rifle team and they competed from 1913, 1915, all around pretty much the east coast. But they did exceedingly well, as the marine corps says. And here in the meantime, he also was asked to be on the uss florida. So he was kind of a needle need picture from 1918. But he had been working on the uss florida for a couple of years when this picture was taken. And he was junior officer for the marine detachment and they were on their way to helping their our allies in the war. And he was really an expert in fire control batteries. So. Back during this time, also had his first son, william jr. The next big station was haiti. So there was a lot of unrest in haiti in the early of the well. For a long time. But he the marines were called in. I think also, you know, the germans were prowling around about that time. And the marines were called in. He went to haiti in 1919. And was there from 1990 to 1923. And he was in charge of the gendarme de haiti. If anybody speaks french sacrifice that better than me. But the guard to haiti. So hes the chief for about three years and right here this picture is pretty cool because you have the the guard and behind. So its a Diverse Group and then you have the haitian president. The middle is retiring and then they the man on the right looking at him is the future president. Louis born now, which is a neat picture and were partisans on the right side over there. So that was accompanied. So he brought his wife, son as well. There. Look. Next big station was to picking bill and his wife marguerite and their son william jr and daughter and rodney because now they had a daughter got their first far east assignment to go to picking. Then it was called picking and joined the legation guard there. So im assuming you all are pretty knowledgeable crowd you know, back in the twenties and thirties we had an earlier but we had, we had these island enclaves where americans and europeans do business in china as, part of part of the boxer, the result of the boxer rebellion that happened in the 19 1900. But anyway they the each country would bring in their guards. The american sector brought in the and the and his family went there. So here is a picture of the legation quarter. So its a walled area. You can look it up online. Theres a great about the china marines there. The fourth marines were called the china marines. And you can see if you can see this, that there were a lot of countries in there from the americans to the russians to the germans and the french and on and on. So again, each country brought their guards. So were pernice was one of those guards and Commanding Officer sadly. This was really hard when i was writing that research thing. This report is we always knew kind of that hed lost his first family. But we really know enough about it. And then when i researched it, i couldnt find anything about them. So eventually i got oral history reports and that sort of thing. He certainly didnt write about it, but scarlett does. So in 1929, didnt give that time. But 1929, they arrived in peking and by december. Of 1929, his little daughter came down with scarlet fever. And that was right before christmas. And she died 12 days later. And then his wife marguerite, whos 38, and his son will write their god scarlet, also got scarlet fever. And back then they couldnt cure it. So they were in the hospital for two months in quarantine, reporters went into quarantine and his wife and son died in february 1930 and 24 hours after it, within 24 hours of each other, he was still quarantine. So he never got to see them or say goodbye. Kind of like what happens with what happened with covid. But so here he is, officer. Hes his children and wife have died. They were shipped bodies were shipped back to washington to be buried at arlington cemetery. I dont think there were a lot of telegrams that went back and forth from the marine corps to recorders and referred us. He wanted flags on their caskets and he wrote a check to pay for the flags. And of course, the marine corps said, dont know, well pay pay for them. But so he lost his entire first family and people who are in the hospital at. The time knew his wife and said she went septic and it was just devastating. I mean, he wasnt the only one who there were other marines that got scarlet fever. But it really obviously affected him. And his mother, augustina why why would her to him from washington said, you know, bill, you need to come home from this is a huge shock. You need to come home. And he said, no, i can i can be better here. He can be better with his marine corps. I mean, was at that time the only family he had left there . And so and he couldnt really leave. Hes still he was just coming out of quarantine and it was his job, you know his duty. And there werent that many marines to to the far east and fill his position. So he stayed there until 1931 and the next picture you see colonel hokum holcomb, who was there when i who went on to become an on really one of the marines officers is to play polo to stay in shape and all everybody back then pretty much knew how to ride horses so he thought that would be good for bill to general purpose to get back in the saddle if you will. And this is kind of a cool picture because here he is with right next to him is roy chapman, who was an explorer in the gobi desert and. He was always hanging out with marines and picking because he had gone out and explored so much. Terry territory and would would map it. And then also put gas around. So that was very helpful. The marine corps, when they went out on their adventures. So heres another picture. I think this is kind of an epic picture. Youve got the marine corps band there. Theres reporters to figure out, i dont know what. Hes thinking, looking at the race, i dont know who this and this gentleman is with him. But then the next picture. You got the japanese officers and theyre kind of by themselves. And keep in mind, this is. 30. So by 1931, the would invade manchuria. And then in 1932, they invaded bombed ships and in shanghai. So you can see i wonder what theyre thinking in 1930 sitting there. But anyway, okay, so next event in his life he comes back, hes at a party. The Chinese Embassy in washington, d. C. , and its a, you know, china veterans. And he meets sleepy curtis. And whos sleepy . Her name was alice hill. Rupert is she was much younger than he was. She came from a navy family and who had served the country a long time. And anyway, they met each other and fell in love and married in three months. And so thats sleepy. And bill on their wedding day, thats your grandmother . My grandmother, yeah. So thats sleepy. So he got a new he got a new lease on life. And sleepy was perfect for him. So they did a couple deployments together. Everything seemed to be accompanied back then and their next big event at big station was shanghai at the Shanghai International settlement. So same thing its an island enclave is you can take you can see from this picture its from the 1930 but it still was pretty accurate night by 1937 when they got there and but here you had again its much more cosmopolitan. Politan there are probably 3 Million People living in the city at the time. And it was a lot of fun at first. And again, they arrived in april 1937. This is the this is actually the photo that was online that don found when he was researching his other book on jerry allen and sent it to me, he said, amy, is this your grandfather . And hes like, you should write him or tell a story about him. And but yes, this is a party at the french club with a couple of marines and, navy officers, the calm before the storm. And theres another picture with sleepy and and curtis on the right. And then thats admiral henry yarnell, who was the commanding naval officer in that area at the time. Then the japanese came rolling in and everything changed. On august 13, 1937, and as you can see, these are these are pictures. I dont know where our grandfather got these, but im assuming he took them or a friend took them, but it was just total devastation overnight. Everything changed. The japanese had slowly eating away at china and then came in and did this huge attack on shanghai, which i think is underreported. But he was right there. So happened is the marines immediately went in. Everyone went into lockdown. You know, they they the gates went up, the sandbags came out. The marines went out with their rifles around the perimeter, at least the american sector, every nations guard on alert. And it was pretty intense. Heres a picture again. Shanghai in 1937. Hes the only one. Well, the guy on the right with little hair, theyre obviously having some kind strategy session here. And here is photo i love its marine photo. But obviously this guy is on the this marine is on the perimeter. Perimeter and hes ready for anything thats going to come him. But as you can imagine, theyre seeing around this perimeter. The outside is total war. I mean, the japanese were very brutal and it was a very violent scene before them. But they were told to hold fire. From the president on down. They did not want to engage the japanese. In 1937, but these marines did. They didnt engage, but they sat there for months having to do this and beyond learned stay fire and they had stray shrapnel come into their eyes and stray gunfire and the japanese would taunt then but they held held strong and did not fire. There might have been fistfights, but they didnt get into any real action. So heres some more pictures is a picture. So i forgot to say that. When the japanese bombed shanghai, our grandmother and all the anybody that could be evacuated would could be or did get evacuated went either to the philippines or someone back to the United States. Our grandmother went to the philippines where her sister joe was with her navy, but they did come back in december. So they were they evacuated in august. They got back about and heres a picture of a japanese officer escorting them around. And theres the repurposes the kulaks or their general kulak and his wife. Then and some other marine officers. So thats what he got to see. And heres the situation. Its kind of tough to see, but it was obviously pretty intense. And you can well, in the book, i have lots of some information about this, but lots of theres lots of stuff online. Okay. So fast forward 1938, they finally come back august 1938, they finally come back from china and my dad is born at the marine barracks. And ethan i big celebration referred to it as an opportunity to have another so that was good dad went on which the Naval Academy and he went on to be marine aviator and he flew in vietnam so his name is hill referred us. So right after let me back up here real quick and then well move on quickly from here. So this is 1938. He had a couple more deployments to Guantanamo Bay and in the then he got to in 1941 november he arrived in san diego the Marine Corps Base. San diego, and he was going to be the chief of staff to general or well, he was, im sure. And then of a sudden on december seven, 1941, the japanese attacked. And it was interesting. I wonder what his perspective because back in shanghai you had marine officers in 1937. Colonel brice being one of them, writing to general vander graf vandergrift to blow off some steam that if these we dont take care of the japanese in shanghai that are in shanghai at the time attacking in shanghai they come to our shores and he has more descriptions about him. I want to into them i wont get into but so fast forward is 1939 then the japanese bombers in 1941 our grandfather is at the Marine Corps Base san diego general upshaw gets promoted. Our grandfather gets promoted to be the commander of the base and all of a sudden these recruits come flying into the marine corps depot to sign up to go, you know, take revenge and our grandfather being an expert rifleman, being on the rifle team, really felt, oh, my gosh, these he knew the enemy because he had seen them in in in china. And he knew they were going to the pacific, which going to be tough, tough environmentally. And he knew that rifle was going to be really important. So he wrote this rifle creed not as a preachy but he really, really wanted to, you know, have the engage the marines hearts and minds the rifle and that the rifle their friend and it would help them and their brother in the pacific and help it win the battle on the ground in the pacific so he wrote my rifle the key to the United States marine it was published in the marine corps san diego chevron and its been recited for a long time since then. So this the original one that was in the chevron and this is one ive been memorizing it, but its changed a bit over years. So heres another version of it it. So fast forward. Hes in san diego. General vandegrift is one of his friends. He gets called to join the First Marine Division and help in the formation training of the First Marine Division in new river, north carolina, called tent city. Back then now its camp lejeune that by april 1942, so by march he was up there by april, they were in Solomon Islands, maryland, watching the in vivians training here is so secretary of the navy knocks colonel then colonel pete to valley general holcomb coming on and then curtis and the were training inland because of course the germans were on the east so so this is where im going to let john don jump in my wonderful coauthor we wanted to really give a little background of reports and here here the marines are getting ready to join the pacific. So, don, with further ado. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you, amy. Hows everybody tonight . You a good looking group. And i want to begin, while i want to say a couple of words, staff. So the Wonderful Team can get the second powerpoint. But i first want to start by wishing you all a happy flag day, and i cant think of a better place. Yeah, go ahead and applaud for flag day. For old glory. God bless america. And i cannot think of a better place to spend flag day, even if i werent talking about one of the greatest officers in American Military is certainly most significant to World War Two. At then the world war. National war. War. World war two museum was National Treasure to us all. And of course, i want to thank colonel bell, jeremy collins. Thank you, general myers, for being here also want to recognize a young man, bruton peacock, who is aimees son and is a great of general curtis. And i spent some time with the last couple of days and hes got it in his genes baby. Hes the real deal so please welcome bruton as well if you would. Thanks also to the av team and thank you to cspan for events such as this, especially when were talking about events of Significant National importance. And i think this is because as i said a moment ago, i believe that general reports is one of the most significant officers in the history of the marine corps, yet as amy said, this is a story that is not fully been told yet. Why is . This could be because he died early. You know, he was his name. He said the longest serving commander of the famed First Marine Division, the old breed in World War Two and a pacific. His friend, general vandegrift was the second longest, and they served almost the same of time. A journal reporter served a little longer as well. See, he was the commander in charge of some of the most significant battles in the pacific and yet he still is a to most of us. He is unfortunately known only for the battle of peleliu. Well talk about that in the second. But what we to do and we understand i think ive gotten there we go. Theres a new powerpoint but i think that i think that what we have sought to do here and we understand that tonight were honored to be in the presence of some of the most significant military historians, the country. So we may not teach you guys anything, maybe a couple of things, but we sought to write a book that will introduce general purposes story to the american and to introduce not only the general himself but tell part of the story of what the First Marine Division was doing in 42 through 1944. In the war. So were honored very, very honored and grateful be here with all of you tonight. Now, lets set the stage. It is early 1942 and were a situation where, of course, there been pearl harbor, the japanese are wreaking havoc all over the western pacific. Theyve taken the philippines, the british protectorates since singapore and malaysia have fallen they basically total totally control westpac, which is an acronym the western pacific. For those of you who might have in the military, we know about the the notorious Bataan Death March which comes about in april of 1942. And then general wainwright of winds up surrendering you know the number of some you all know may 7070 5000 combined american and filipino forces. It is arguably the largest defeat or perhaps the most significant defeat in the history. United states army. You can we can debate some the stuff in the civil war, but certainly in the 20th century, america is in need of a victory on ground. Now, the United States navy, of which im very grateful to be a veteran, engages and of course, a coral sea 1942. The navy fights to japanese navy, some say a stalemate. Some say its a its a victory. Basically were able to stop some of the Japanese Naval advance, but they are still dangerous out there with multiple aircraft carriers and then we see midway in june of 1942 and then one of the greatest naval victories in the of the world, i would argue that theyre both trafalgar and trafalgar. Trafalgar that i say that right to fly. I grew up in the south so i but youre a bunch of words i mean one of the greatest naval victories the history of the world in which the United States navy through by the grace of god and some good weather, are able to take out four japanese aircraft carriers. That is a great victory. And it certainly is a strategic turning point in the war. But the war is from over. America as i say, needs a victory on the ground. Seeing a photograph there of the notorious Bataan Death March enter Major General William Curtis as well as well see he historically significant for a number of reasons. First there is the there are four historic significant battles World War Two in which he commanded there is the battle trilogy, which is part of the Solomon Islands campaign there. As far as we know, this is the first ground victory in the war in the pacific, perhaps even the First American ground victory of american ground victory in World War Two. You remember operation torch in, north africa began in november of 42. So were talking about were talking about august of 42 before the army is yet to get engaged in in europe. Now, jeremy is giving me two clickers. Ive got a pointer and a clicker so i could get confused. So if you bear with me, thatd be great, he commanded the battle of henderson field, which is the final battle, guadalcanal, which basically broke the back of the japanese on guadalcanal. This is this this is where the medal of honor was won. And and by the great marine who a marine. So again. Yeah, exactly. Thats exactly right. And then you have the battle of Cape Gloucester at new britain and the battle of peleliu and the powell island, the poao islands. And so those are the four victories that he commanded in. One now lets take a look at the situation. We move to august six, 1942. This is three, three years to the day before we dropped an atomic bomb on hiroshima. We have a Naval Task Force moving south from south to north, toward the Solomon Islands. And this is where its all going to start. The first marines at this time were commanded general vandegrift general purposes is the deputy commander, and theyre going to move in and theyre going to strike first at a place called trilogy. And im going to explain that just in a second. All right. Youre seeing right here, general vandegrift see me. General curtis, on the bridge of uss neville, 7th august 1942. Another shot of the general as they begin the their landing operations, which commenced to the approximately 8 a. M. That morning. This is what this is a overall map of guadalcanal and the solomon area. You can see guadalcanal is a huge looks kind of like the state of california sitting out there in the water. But the little the little red area here is is going to be too large. And ill show you tan and bogle and gavin to just in a moment, the japanese headquartered ontology in the Solomon Islands. They had the british had had this target previously been the the headquarters for the British State abandon it back in the spring when the Japanese Forces were coming to powerful the japanese set up their military there and sea playing bases that can threaten our marines. Ive got a couple of maps here showing the the approach of the two Naval Task Forces and theyre going to be coming in here general vandegrift group is going to come to guadalcanal. You reporters will be coming in to you can see you can see to log you there right. Florida which is a larger allen this is a little bit closer and showing the approach again of the two of the two task force, they come in on the morning, the seventh, they make course corrections and theyre moving straight in. So dday at toolangi, which is going to occur before we land at guadalcanal, because youve got to we have to neutralize the japanese air power there among things is set for 8 a. M. Before the the invasion begins. We have warplanes, the uss wharf, saratoga enterprise, about the only workable Carriers Navy has at the time launching pre suppression fire which is important military doctrine. As many of you know. And we see whats going whats going to go on here so this is twg that should be tough task for yoke is general reports marines 2500 or so headed toward tallahassee and theres gap between ten and bigger task x ro is coming in here under command of general vandegrift they will eventually land without opposition. Initially its the solomon guadalcanal, which is not the case ontology in town and boga, a little bit closer map here of tallahassee and then the islets of tan and bogo and gave it to they are coral islets and this is where the japanese have very dangerous planes here. Any bomb from one of the sea planes could take out of either any of ships in the area. We got to take them. So to argue as 3. 4 miles in length, it kind of looks like that. It looks like i compare it a little bit the way cuba looks a little bit, but its much smaller. Its about six, six, half a mile, a little wider than at its widest point. And you can see the operation begins at 8 00 am. This is the first active operation by us marine raiders, which were formed and they were under general repurposes command. Major edson is group will move into what we call blue beach here and i show theyre going to do theyre going to turn to the right and kind of sneak behind the japanese. Now i want to talk about one of the things that general report is doesnt get credit for because you dont know about them. But this was not only the first, we believe, amphibious invasion, but it was a risky maneuver. It talakai because the japanese are located down here in the southeastern quadrant of the out. Thats where they are around the northwestern section. All up here, what we have, which have treacherous coral soto where is the japanese are not anticipating anybody coming in here because the coral they think theyve got a natural defensive barrier. So plans a Daring Mission his marines bring their ilk they bring their higgins boats with a great place to be from new orleans. But up to the to the to the beginning of coral and the guys jump out in the water and the water is up to their necks. And sometimes over egg, so that they want to walking in and theyre going to execute this maneuver the right and basically catch the the japanese are expecting something because we start a bombing but are not expecting get hit from the back side. So this is a brilliant maneuver here we see our raiders on the morning of august 7th. They actually in theyve jumped over the coral walking in the japanese dont yet know that theyre there. There are a couple of snipers in the area that get taken out. But this this operation was basically a surprise. Us navy photo taken on the morning of the operation can see the radar units are going to be moving in. Theres a ravine there, theres a hill to 20 that is going to be defended by the japanese and we wont have to take that out too long is going to fall in about three days. This is more an overview of the strategic. The raiders are here. Theyre coming in and theyre going to move to the south. Remember, theyre going around coral reef and down here at tan and burger and two, which i mentioned are two very small coral islets where we have the japanese have sea planes that are dangerous, armed. We want to see the first parachute battalion this is a this is a group kind of like the had at one time its no longer an active but that operation on tan and bugle gave it to a scale would have been begin at 12 noon after weve already moved on to logging. These are photographs taking again from us navy recon but you know of this is tallahassee burning the marines have come in here and a move down this way and the japanese are here this is these are these hills ive mentioned to you and and and there you have this is a little closer look at tan and bogo and gave it to which of course had to be taken of the sea planes first parachute battalion comes in here third battalion second marines here and here gave it to is the large of the two islets in tandem. Burgos top tan and berger gave it to are connected by basically a and a of coral right there to kind connects the to these this a little bit harder gave a two in ten and bugaboo form august the ninth which if you in a data like me that would be three three days three years to the date before nagasaki a photograph gravity in tan and bug burning so just some some maps here that were showing now all this led up to something the battle of sabah al some of you might know about savo island Seven Islands one of the you know we didnt lose as many guys at sabu down as we did its naval battle. There were five naval battles basically surrounding the entire five major naval battle surrounding Guadalcanal Campaign on the night the eighth, the day after day, the japanese are going to come in here and we have american and primarily american and also australian cruisers that are sent here. And their job is to defend. Right now here what we have is we have the transport ships that are carrying our marines into tallahassee. Here the president jackson, the haywood, the neville, which general purpose is on are all parked right out here in the water, unloading marines and supplies over on the south side, the transport group, which is Task Force Yoke and under the command of general vandegrift, have more, of course, but these japanese cruises are the store is going to launch attack on the night of the eight and it into a naval disaster. What happened is we taken their carriers out so the so the japanese are now launching their navy out of rabaul the japanese still have a very lethal navy although their carriers have been taken out. And theyre going to theyre going to take five of our crew, five of our well, basically five our cruisers either are sucker damage. Over a thousand sailors is the largest loss in history for the us navy after pearl harbor. Best i can tell, a thousand men were lost pearl harbor. We got ambushed. This was an active battle and was a disaster. So what happens is when the japanese come in from rabaul, i show you where theyre coming. Just in a second. Another map because of that disaster, these transport groups are to have to pull out. It is an absolute miracle that the japanese turned and went back up to rabaul and new britain without these transports out because. They were like sitting ducks, but they had to get the heck out of dodge. This is a up map of where our navy transports for offloading the marines on to two large. Neville right here is the command where the command ship general purpose was here. An interesting about it is on the night of the eighth and i think we cover this in the book general vandegrift is over hes down south on guadalcanal. He got to go find. General purpose is up here commanding the two logging operation to say, hey, weve got to get the heck out of dodge. So vandegrift get the boat. Hes coming across the sand over there. See lark channel, which becomes known as iron bottom, because we sink so many ships in there to try to find reporters, he gets lost the water as he is getting in the water. Hes seen these explosions up from burning ships over near sabo island and but, you know, so the marines got left by the navy. But we had to protect those carriers because thats all we had. So that was the reason picture of general referred in the staff at trilogy island. Couple of pictures here this is a pull this the sun star is talking colonel bell a minute ago this used to be kind of like the second paper in washington after the Washington Post and Navy Launches offensive to drive from solomon just to headlines this all thats now nobody knows whats on im just telling you about savo island or or our marines facing firefight at tallahassee. But the country doesnt really yet know whats happened after tallahassee falls. This is, again the First American victory on the ground that we have been able to to determine the document of the war. Now think about this thing about if youre talking about the the war, the american and leaving off lexington and concord, thats historically historically significant is if you watched the the the pacific you know youll see our marines in and and landing on guadalcanal without opposition. They changed their strategy. But but anyway this the area of the Solomon Islands and lost my no im the wrong button there so talaga is here is florida as well go to look at some of these the japanese cruisers throughout the guadalcanal operation were launching at rabaul coming now this area which we call the and they come here generally at night and they just not living you know what of our marines on both of these on both guadalcanal across the way a gang of two and it was a situation this just another map showing where the battle from was fought. Tallahassee, florida. And these are the central points on guadalcanal now. And some of these battles here residents rage in huntersville. Ill touch on real quickly just in a second. The general the meantime, after two augie fell, general vandegrift had general reports at two logging going back and forth across our bottom the sound of these boats and i think hes stepping off back in on to tallahassee here this very dangerous operation every time you cross this channel as i say, cabo sound or sea art channel later became known as Iron Bottom Sound because of all the naval wreckage that was there on guadalcanal after trilogy, there were three major battles ten through alligator creek. Its in essence ridge and the battle of henderson field, which the general reporters commanded. Many of you all those just picture is the first one, alligator creek, known as ten through august, august 21st, 1942, a month later, we had the battle of exxons ridge. Colonel edson had been the raider commander who led the raiders into tallahassee just in august. So now hes come back over to guadalcanal under general vanegas command, into this, the battle of some ridge in every case the japanese are trying to take this airfield, because, see, heres the deal. This airfield, henderson field, is that is why had we wanted to take guadalcanal many as you know and so the japanese were trying on many occasions to break through these perimeters and retake airfield because it is strategic. Now, theyve lost their carriers have lost their air power battle for henderson feel this is of course general purpose getting the navy cross from admiral nimitz is all of that i think amy showed this general curtis by the way in 1943, the First Marine Division after came to australia and the general was a general colonel bells talking about general petraeus, general curtis, lt, general petraeus, very diplomatic diplomat, highly skilled, so here we have Eleanor Roosevelt comes to australia and draws all the military commanders crazy because of the logistics that are involved with that. But he is designed as her escort in melbourne. Thats them together in 1943. She a handwritten letter to him which we have. Amy, by the way, has kept all this. Shes her country a great service. Dear, my dear general of sarah center. And of course, army commended the general for that as well. General, this is a general area showing. The japanese holdings, as we begin the Hopping Campaign and i want to talk a little bit about now after the respite and australia that general, General Macarthur, the great General Macarthur, one of the most interesting, great generals, interesting characters and personalities in american history. He likes the First Marine Division so much that he decides he wants it under his own command. So he goes to and argues with nimitz, and he becomes a fan of General Macarthur, of general izumi general referred notice and the so macarthur wants hes wanting to do right here where circling is is where the japanese are launching their their ships out of rabaul and come down to slot. So strategy here is to try and surround and basically choke it so therefore here we show the Solomon Islands here bougainville marines are involved there. But macarthur wants the first marines to hit over the east side of new britain, Cape Gloucester, to put pressure here against against a rebel. As the marines are moving up this way to put pressure against rebel. So in other words we attack new britain at cape blaster on boxing day december 26, 1943. A little map of the area you see where Cape Gloucester is, where the invasion began, and rabaul is here. Cape gloucester is a photograph of the invasion. Invasion . Well, theres rough. We got our guys in, moved in fairly successfully. So this is a general we have a shot down. Im not sure that is in the back, but theyre raising the colours and praying and giving for the victory. Just got them in an area of of the operation is on Cape Gloucester. Im not going to go too deep. The weeds here. This is a photograph of general reading a congratulatory letter from president roosevelt. I think it came over the and was translated but that was from president roosevelt. The First Marine Divisions for swiftly taking control at Cape Gloucester after cape after they retired again they were hoping to go back to australia for r r, but they go to a place, pavlova, which apparently, you know, kind of like guadalcanal and mosquito infested, etc. , etc. , etc. But bob hope came and entertain the troops. So we captured that picture. Lets about the sweep westward and then ill get ready to close here in a second. We, we have to logging guadalcanal. We have gloucester, then we have peleliu now peleliu is an interesting situation because macarthur General Macarthur had promised that i shall return. Theres been data. So. So why take powell pell a lot about peleliu. The second peleliu is out here as part of the palau islands. So you can see where this section is near the philippines is strategically because of its proximity. The philippines shown in red here again southeast of the philippines peleliu, is down one of six islands in the south and is it about 500 miles off the philippines . Now there are some three point some key points about, i think, general reports gets a bad rap it but ill explain that in the second codename operation stalemate is part of the pow and Mariana Campaign Mariana Islands of course is is guam and tinian and and of course we launched our piece, our b, r, b are b29s out of tinian to bomb japan. But army also is shifting now from europe and well join the marines in force here. The army had been primarily in europe. Were beginning to see a shift now. Theres a huge here. So talk about theres a huge debate between the army and navy about whether to execute the operation at all. You know, heres the deal, by the way weve got a peleliu author, a whats your name again . Tell me your name. Lou wrote a book called 15 weeks. Right. 15 days. Pick up 15 days. His father in law was a corpsman on peleliu. So on to put a plug to that book. But let me just say this. Theres a debate on whether to go all macarthur wanted to go back to the philippines he promised but the issue, of course, is geography and so if hes moving in to the philippines, the are controlling peleliu and they could potentially hit him from the back side, he doesnt want that. So initially hes arguing for this invasion. The navy doesnt want to do it. The navy wants to directly into japan. Now, president roosevelt is kind of like president lincoln in a way. He had a way of letting his commanders going to argue back and forth and back forth and forth and back. And you got what you got somehow, some way at end of the day, the decision was made to attack. It was a joint operation of the army, navy and the marine corps and the First Marine Division division would lead that wave. On september 15th, 42. Now, the other key point about peleliu is there was a huge shift in, the japanese battle tactics for the first time here, japanese have been doing this thing which i call retreat and ambush, and they run into the like guadalcanal. They run back in the jungle and they come back and hit you with these bonds attached to it. Hit you. Im oversimplifying, but here they dig in and so they get into the bunkers, they get here they get there. So were going to see something weve never seen before. And as you look at this picture of our of our marine ltvs coming in on dday and peleliu, peleliu was a product i dont mean this in a critical manner at all when i say it was a product of a failure, Naval Intelligence and reason. I mean in a critical matters because you know now weve got weve got predator drones, weve got satellites you we have, you know, high planes, you know, had the the blackbird back in days. We did the best we could in terms of of preplanning intel. You might get a reconnaissance plane over the top of a place. And if you do, you not see anything. And they were dug in the end to the into the hills, basically. And we would go in to see this again at iwo jima in, february of 1945, and in okinawa. So this was the very first time we saw it. So the casualties going to be higher. First marine division. Excuse me. Im sorry. Let me back up first. Marine division are going to come in on the south east section of the the island. By the way, ive done book on iwo. And so it would seem from the air kind of looks like a pork. Okay, so but this book, this island from the air kind of looks like a stingray, you know, the big part of the thing right here and the tail here. So the marines are going to hit here chesty is involved this operation number of other marines. And you can see this is a more modern of peleliu now. But the invasion initially hit on this of the island on day one. Marines facing of temperatures up 215 degrees. This is africanamerican regiment. I think these might be the four marines who were under general repurchases command, but it was hot as all get out at the opening and they were facing japanese up front in the teeth theyd never seen before. This is a photograph of the repurchases here. I believe this is Chesty Puller right in the chest. Got that right bearing some of the there. So it turned out to be an american victory. Got it. An american victory and the general left and passed. His wife christened the uss here. And as i close out the question is, could history repeating we just saw Us Pacific Fleet announce operation Operation Iron ore exercise valiant shield 22 andersen air base uss ronald reagan. Abraham lincoln. Set of surplus marines are engaging in this operation and here as this operation goes on, as we speak, after the 17th, we had the First Marine Division back now in the poao islands taking part in military exercise. So that last part is not in the book. But i do hope the book will will serve purpose to introduce to stories great general to add to history. And i appreciate all that you are doing the volunteers for this museum. I meant to thank you all earlier. You are the bread and butter and youre doing service to the country to keep history alive. So we will close to this moment of the heave ho up in the back there and, possibly take some questions there, be some wild laughs, i dont know. But anyway, thank you very much. If you have questions, raise your hand. The first question for either of you comes from kent online, and he wants to know what was the generals opinion of the operation in peleliu . Should it gone or not . Try that. Can hear me . Yeah. He didnt live a long enough to talk about it. The only i know is that he wrote to vandegrift from general vandegrift, who was then comment on about peleliu and he he didnt we dont know if he i mean, he was told what to do. He did what he was duty was to do. But i know that he thought peleliu was a hell hole. He wrote that too. Vandegrift said with im going to discover any historical evidences whether he was in favor of it or opposed to it, but the navy versus the army probably would go on a navy. My guess because of, you know, admiral nimitz was his ultimate boss. We dont know for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Good question. Well get to a question. The center aisle here. Yeah. How did he die he back from the pacific in november. 1944 and with a whole slew marines and he was coming the marine corps and he went up to a party in washington of the First Marine Division veterans eighth and i and was with my grandmother and my father and he ended up at that party having a heart attack. So that was march 19 and march 25th, 1945. And he was buried the next day at arlington. Next question coming from online. Was there anything you found in your prewar research that indicated hed learned from what the japanese were doing in china that he was able to apply during. War two . I think what he learned there, not being to see seeing all this this war before him in the japanese tactics because remember after shanghai there was nanking, the rape of nanking, the uss and the marines could do anything. We could not do anything our country to respond to what we were seeing. So, you know, i think i think he pretty driven and pretty convicted and the mission ahead of him against the japanese. Let me add that when he was in shanghai for from in 1937, for a period of four months, you know, 200,000 chinese killed in a of about four months, which is roughly the number of folks we lost World War Two and america lost. And he witnessed it. He was eyewitnesses there and a handful of other officers as well. And so he knew what the japanese world was uniquely qualified then to take command. Eventually, the division, i think the rifleman screed, frankly, might be a product of that. And you know, weve got some video of some audio of him. He was hes obviously a very aggressive military commander. And i think probably he knew that there were there were need to be american aggression to take out an enemy like that. Well get to the general as soon as i get there. Yes, sir. Were there any tactics or, uh, techniques or strategies that the the general was known to have fathered or initiated here, as he did, some of the first amphibious, major Amphibious Operations in the pacific . Great question. We just actually last week found, some audio from the the National Archives that where hes talking about amphibious landings on Cape Gloucester which really felt was probably the best best best bet. Amphibious event that in the pacific. So he really id be happy to send that to you you get if i can get your email. But its really neat hes going into about the strategy and how the allied efforts paid off on that and it went very smoothly far as an amphibious landing. So i cant say that he was responsible for that. Well, he was the commanding general at that time. But but he talked about and even wrote to general vandegrift smooth. That operation was techniques, tactics and procedures to keep obviously his his boat maneuver at peleliu in my opinion was kind of a daring and swashbuckling type of maneuver. And do you mean to toolangi excuse me, but by, you know, basically dropping out in front of the coral. So clearly he embraced the element of surprise and and the very some of the very First Marine Amphibious actions were based on those. Kate glasser well, of course, theres tremendous naval firepower there too, but i dont know if there is anything other than that, but but i think that he certainly pave the way in terms of the amphibious approach of the United States Marine Corps Based on those operations. To your left here in the front row, please. Hello. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about why you chose the title did for the book . I you the breed general. Seems like jumping in and out of boats and getting shot. And that seems so. Different from my perception of what i would call a newbury general. Right. Well, i think he he. Well, of all our publisher came up with that title. We didnt we had all we had different titles we were going to use, like from the rifleman screed, no enemy and or, you know, all. But but he really was. I mean, and even ive gotten comments that that marine corps officers higher echelon wouldnt talk to each other the way they did or they they wouldnt talk to the enlisted man. You know there wasnt that communication but this war in the pacific i there was he was jumping out of boats and being shot at truly even. When he tried to get to tallahassee, there were snipers to shoot at him. So they had to back. He ended up sleeping on the beach until augie. So it was kind of the wild west. And i think i think its war in the pacific is what they were dealing with. And they did communicate with each other on more of a friendly, friendly level. There was so much danger everywhere. Its a very good question. And publishers at the end the day since theyre paying you to write the book they have veto power. But there was there were discussions on titles. But at the end of the day, the First Marine Division is known as the old breed dog. And of course, sledges wonderful book on what the old breed helped to, you know, the popular was that name amongst the public. And i think the publisher is first real biography about well, about the general who commanded that division the longest in the war. And i think they made that call. But there are other good titles out there, too. But you ask a very good question to your right here, halfway back. Hi, don and amy. Thank you for your presentation. My question is for amy. Im just wondering how old were you when you how important your grandfather. So when did you realize his role and everything that he did, all that stuff . Well, i do. I think probably pretty young, not to the extent since ive done all this research and weve done all this research that i now know more. But when i was little, we did have have the banner of the uss or us. So when it was launched, we have a big canvas canvas thing that went on the front shield, went on the front of the ship when it was launched in 1945. And so ive kind of figured that was important. We had a couple. Photographs of guadalcanal and and that of thing, but i didnt really know until i started researching how, how profound this was, you know. And so, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, amy peacock and don, thank you very much for anational park service. Celebrate its centennial in 2016. And the idea