BEHIND ENEMY LINES ON GUADALCANAL. THEN IWO...

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Marble
75 years ago, five Marines and a sailor hoisted a flagpole atop Mt. Suribachi. Several of them would die within weeks, there on Iwo Jima. Three of them now rest in Arlington under marble headstones.

Near the Continental Divide in Colorado, a tiny town sits at the base of a marble mountain. A century ago, from its quarries men cut great blocks of purest whiteness for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lincoln Memorial. 

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Steam locomotives pulled flatcars piled high with impure pieces of it alongside the Crystal River, as men shoved them into the river to stabilize its banks. The town built a schoolhouse atop blocks of it. Dad made the back step of our house out of it. Of course, the town's name is Marble.

The Poet

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In 1994, my wife Michelle and I returned to Colorado to live in Redstone, a tiny town downriver from Marble. Michelle was a teacher at the Marble school and, one day at the local inn, we had lunch with Virgil and Joyce Leeman. Michelle told me that Virgil taught poetry to the Marble students. He was a nice man, slight, in his seventies, with white hair worn in a pageboy.

A few months later, the school invited me and other local veterans to attend a Veteran's Day ceremony and to bring any medals we might have. On the day, I and a dozen other men assembled in a large schoolroom with our families. 

The sun shone through its huge windows as students stood up front, each holding one of our medals. When it was my turn, I mentioned my Vietnam combat service, briefly mentioning that I'd lost a leg there. Other men described their service in WWII. I noticed Virgil and Joyce in the back of the room.

One gentleman described his WWII service in Germany and, for him, his laughable attempts to shoot down one of the new jet Messerschmidts. Another described his time in Texas teaching mechanics how to fix B-17s.

Virgil, in the back, stood up last. I remember thinking how appropriate it was that he had attended to recite a poem for we veterans.

Virgil, Poet/Warrior
Here's what he said: "My name is Virgil Leeman. I live here in Marble. I joined the Marines on December 8th, 1941. I was with Carlson's Raiders. We were the first Marines to see combat in the Pacific. We were the bait for the Japanese and they attacked us at the Midway Islands. 

Guadalcanal - US Navy

"At Guadalcanal, I was on the Long Patrol with Colonel Carlson for 30 days behind enemy lines. At Iwo Jima I was wounded in the throat on the beach. I saw the American flag go up on Suribachi from a hospital ship offshore." Then he sat down. The room was silent.

I Was A Fool
To this day, I have a hard time describing how embarrassed I was that day. I had completely misjudged the man, based on how he looked. 

Over the years, the four of us became good friends. When Virgil and I rebuilt our log houses we found time to discuss wartime at length. He was humble, I'll give him that. Several years later, he mentioned that he had been mentioned in a new book about the Second Marine Raiders Battalion. I immediately bought a copy.

American Commando

Midway - US Navy

If you're interested in the type of combat memorialized in the Marine Corps Hymn, read American Commando, by John Wukovits. In it, he describes how LtCol Carlson chose men from Marine volunteers and trained them in commando tactics. They carried Tommy guns, long knives, grenades in their pockets and some wore their hair in Mohawks. They took no prisoners. As Virgil is quoted in the book, "We were a pretty wild-looking lot."

It Started At Midway
The naval Battle of Midway in June, '42, was decisive, ferocious and famous. The Japanese attacked Eastern Island to seize or destroy the American airfield at Midway, but their attacks made little news compared to the overwhelming naval battle which turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

American Commando describes how Virgil, a few feet away at his defensive position on the beach, watched John Ford (of Stagecoach fame) document the blistering, but unsuccessful Japanese attack on Sand Island at Midway. 

Ford later said, "They were kids, oh, I would say from 18 to 22, none of them were older.  I have never seen a greater exhibition of courage and coolness under fire in my life and I have seen some in my day." Ford's documentary (The Battle Of Midway on Netflix) won an Academy Award in 1942 for Best Documentary Short Subject. 

Then, Makin Island
A few months later, submarines infiltrated Virgil and other Second Battalion Raiders onto Japanese-held Makin Island for some Marine-style payback for December 7th. They took no prisoners.

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One Raider earned the first Marine Medal Of Honor in WWII. Those two days spent killing the Japanese won them overnight fame throughout a bloodied America. 

Later, in 1943, the Battle of Makin Island was memorialized in the movie "Gung Ho," starring Randolph Scott, Noah Beary, Jr, and Robert Mitchum. Gung Ho, in Chinese, means "working together" and was Carlson's motto, and the hallmark of the democratic military discipline he practiced with his Raiders. 

Evening Dancers
The unconventionality of Carlson's command style and, some say, the fame the Raiders acheived in the press, contributed to the Raiders eventually being reassimilated into the Corps. That, and the dislike by senior commanders of its "unMarine-like discipline." But until it was, they wreaked havoc on the Japanese who, until then, viewed the American military as "evening dancers."

"Before the Green Berets...

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Before the Navy SEALs...
Before the Army Rangers...
There was the Long Patrol."
Virgil and the other Raiders survived the Long Patrol on Guadalcanal with socks full of raisins and rice, and support from the island natives. They lost 18 men while killing over 500 Japanese. Those 30 days of search and destroy actions in blistering jungle heat against a larger force of Japanese became, justifiably, legendary. 

Says Wukovits in his book: "'That was the great adventure of my life,' stated Pvt. Virgil Leeman of C company, of what would become known in Marine anals as the Long Patrol. Leeman selected Guadalcanal despite later fighting in Bougainville's jungles and battling for his life on Iwo Jima's sands."

After the war, Virgil lived in New Zealand for 25 years, finally returning to America to find Joyce, the red-headed love of his life, and settling in Marble to build their log house. He had a deep, hardearned wisdom. 

Context
He and I agreed that explaining war without first giving (often, too brutal for them to hear) context was impossible. There's a reason why our kids say, "Dad never talks about it." 

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The truth is, members of the Purple Heart brotherhood tell each other war stories that are close to the bone. I've got some, about my time as a company commander in Vietnamese jungles, but they pale against Virgil's service and I've told him so. 

One afternoon, before Virgil passed away, he said something austere to Michelle, Joyce and I. I've read the books about him and his outfit. I've watched an old movie about his time on Makin Island, and I've spent many inspiring hours talking to him about his life. With all of that as context, I think I know what he meant when he said, "We have to find a better way of resolving our differences."

Shrines With all due respect to America's quarries, I think it's also time we found a way to stop needing so much of their marble for the headstones and shrines of our heroes.

Stay tuned... Ron

If you're interested in reading about brotherhood and other urgent issues of our lives and times:

Letters In A Helmet

The Prostate Chronicles