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Arnold Meads, 96, has carried a suitcase of memorabilia from his
years of service as a radio operator in World War II to each annual
reunion of the “Forgotten Battalion,” as the artillerymen of the 3rd
Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment and the 2nd 155mm Howitzer Battalion
call themselves.
Some of that memorabilia finally found a
permanent home at the National Museum of the Marine Corps (NMMC) on
Aug. 25, 2016. Meads and four other members of the battalion—Mike
Arrand, Rolland “Pat” Patrick, Jim Lieberknecht and Earl Lance—held
what will most likely be their final reunion aboard Marine Corps
Base Quantico Aug. 25-29, 2016. The five men and their sergeant
major, who did not attend the reunion, are the last surviving
veterans of the battalion. At age 91, Patrick is the youngest,
having joined the Marine Corps when he was only 16 years old.
August 25, 2016 - Five of the six surviving veterans of World War II's "Forgotten Battalion," as the artillerymen of H&S, G, H, and I batteries, 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines and the 2nd 155 Howitzer Battalion were collectively known, gathered at the National Museum of the Marine Corps for a reunion. Left to right: Mike Arrand, Earl Lance, Arnold Meads (the oldest at 96), Pat Patrick (the youngest at 91) and Jim Lieberknecht. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by
Adele Uphaus-Conner) |
Among the souvenirs the museum accepted from Meads was a
Japanese “sennibari” belt, embroidered with the silhouette
of a tiger, which Meads found on a deceased Japanese machine
gunner during the battle of Saipan.
“These belts were
also known as ‘belts of 1,000 stitches,'” said Owen Conner,
curator of uniforms and heraldry at NMMC. “They were
provided to Japanese service members by women or Buddhist
temples back home, in hopes of bringing good luck to their
soldier.
“This artifact was accepted due to its
well-documented association with a member of the 155mm
Howitzer Battalion and its connection to the battle of
Saipan.”
Meads also donated souvenir pennants he
collected from the islands where the battalion stopped
before or after their engagements.
The Forgotten
Battalion spent 34 months in continuous service in the
Pacific during World War II, participating in six major
battles: Tulagi, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam and Iwo
Jima.
At the start of the war, they were a 75mm Pack
Howitzer Battalion attached to 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine
Regiment. They shipped out from San Diego on July 1, 1942.
On August 9, 1942, they fired the first field artillery
round in a U.S. offensive in World War II at Japanese
snipers near the island of Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. A
little later that same day, they made history again by
providing the first-ever field artillery support for an
amphibious landing in Marine Corps history.
According
to a Feb. 1945 Leatherneck article about the battalion, they
survived on wormy rice and taro root for 22 days on Tulagi
after supply ships pulled out of the Solomons early leaving
only 72 hours of rations.
Their next combat landing
was on Guadalcanal, where they stayed for six months. After
rest and relaxation in New Zealand, they fought in the
bloody, 76-hour battle of Tarawa in November 1943.
After Tarawa, they were re-designated as the 2nd 155mm
Howitzer Battalion and given the new, larger artillery piece
to use with relatively little training on it. They fired the
new gun in the battles of Saipan and Guam in 1944—they were
the only artillery unit to see action in both campaigns—and
Iwo Jima in 1945. The battalion was deactivated in May of
1945. In their 34 months of service, they fired more than
56,000 artillery shots against the Japanese and they were
awarded three Presidential Unit Citations and two Navy Unit
Citations.
At this year's reunion, held a little over
74 years after they first saw combat at Tulagi, the veterans
toured the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
In
the museum's World War II gallery, relatives helped them out
of their wheelchairs so that they could pose by a case
containing the first field artillery round fired by H and I
Batteries, 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines in the Guadalcanal
campaign.
On August 29, 2016 ... they held a luncheon
and memorial service at the U.S. Marine Memorial Chapel
aboard Quantico, officiated by Cmdr. Jeff Etheridge, MCBQ
command chaplain.
By Adele Uphaus-Conner
Marine Corps Base Quantico
Marine Corps News
Copyright 2016
The U.S. Marines
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