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The Guadalcanal campaign began on Thursday, August 7, 1942,
exactly eight months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. With
its lush jungle cover and tropical waters, Guadalcanal was a
picturesque contrast of deep green and azure blue. But for all its
natural beauty, Guadalcanal was also a fearful place to fight a war.
On “the Canal,” the Americans would fight two
enemies–the Japanese and the jungle. In late summer and early fall,
the island boasted a steamy climate with searing temperatures and
daily monsoon-like rains. Man-eating sharks and saltwater crocodiles
patrolled the local waters. Top it off with swarms of disease-ridden
mosquitoes carrying dengue fever, malaria and yellow fever and it
becomes clear why Marines called Guadalcanal “the green hell.”
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An artist's depiction of the NOB Cactus mission to save an ambushed Marine battalion at Point Cruz, Guadalcanal. Official recognition for this Coast Guard operation included a Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, and a number of Purple Hearts. Franklin D. Roosevelt later recognized all members of Dexter's Coast Guard unit with the Presidential Unit Citation as part of the First Marine Division. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy image.)
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At 2:30 p.m. on August 9, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dwight Dexter
came ashore to establish the Naval Local Defense Force and
Anti-Submarine Patrol, also known as Naval Operating Base (NOB)
“Cactus” (Cactus being the code name for Guadalcanal), or NOB
Cactus. This would become the first and only known case of a Naval
Operating Base manned and run primarily by the Coast Guard.
Known as “the Old Man,” Dexter was a natural leader and he was
devoted to those under his command. His original crew came solely
from the Coast Guard-manned transport USS Hunter Liggett and
comprised of 22 Coast Guard and three Navy enlisted men. When the
men aboard the Liggett heard he would lead Guadalcanal's small boat
operations, over two dozen volunteered to serve with him.
Dexter's crew came from across the
United States, including Signalman 1st Class Raymond “Ray” Evans
from Bellingham, Washington. Evans enlisted in the Coast Guard in
1939 and was one of the senior enlisted men at NOB Cactus. Early on,
he became Dexter's right-hand man at NOB Cactus having already
served under Dexter as a command staff signalman.
The number
of NOB Cactus personnel would grow to about 50 men, including Navy
coxswains, Walter Bennett and Samuel Roberts. Bennett and Roberts
served aboard Evans' boats.
Dexter established NOB
headquarters near the tiny village of Kukum, on the beaches of Lunga
Point. Dexter's men built dugout shelters among NOB Cactus's tents
and outbuildings. They also built a signal tower next to the
headquarters shack out of coconut logs for ship-to-shore
communications using Aldis lamp signals, a signaling device for
visual communication, such as Morse code.
At its peak, NOB
Cactus would support a fleet of about 50 watercraft, including many
landing craft known as Landing Craft Personnel or LCPs. LCPs had a
snub nose bow that supported two side-by-side machine gun tubs, each
holding a .30 caliber air-cooled Lewis machine gun. The coxswain's
helm and engine controls were located behind the tandem gun
emplacements and this original landing craft design had no bow ramp.
It was 36-feet long, could hold 36 men with a top speed of eight
knots. With this design, Marines debarked over the side of the boat
or hopped over the bow after the LCP beached. LCPs often left
coxswains and crews positions exposed to enemy fire when they
operated off enemy held shores. Japanese snipers firing from palm
trees and enemy machine gunners raking the watercraft from shore
commonly caused upper body, head and neck wounds to crewmembers..
On Tuesday, August 18, Signalman 1st
Class Douglas “Doug” Munro transferred from the Tulagi theater of
operations 20 miles from Guadalcanal. He piloted his LCP across Iron
Bottom Sound and was met at the beach by best friend, Evans, and
Dexter, his favorite officer.
Hailing from the small town of
Cle Elum, Washington, Munro participated in his town's drum and
bugle corps during his formative years and directed the corps for
three years. Always upbeat, he enlisted in the Coast Guard at the
same time and place as Evans and they became fast friends. The two
first served aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, where they both
became signalmen and Munro earned expert marksman ratings with
rifles and pistols. For the next few years, the two managed to serve
together aboard the same ships and received the nickname, “the Gold
Dust Twins.”
Early in the summer of 1942, Munro, Evans and
Dexter received assignments to the USS Charles McCawley. Evans and
Dexter transferred to the Liggett in time for the assault on
Guadalcanal, but Munro stayed behind on the McCawley. Munro helped
land Marines on the hotly contested beaches of Tulagi and remained
on the island with a Marine guard to set-up ship-to-shore
communications. After Munro transferred to Guadalcanal, he and Evans
were among the senior men at NOB Cactus and served as enlisted
leadership at the base. For their accommodations, they built a
makeshift 5-by-8 foot shelter of packing crates at the base of the
coconut-log signal tower and enclosed it with a tent roof.
In
addition to its logistical support mission, NOB Cactus served as an
important communications hub between the Marines and offshore
vessels. During the day, Munro and Evans signaled Allied Forces
ships with the Aldis lamp. At night, the Navy command prohibited
signaling because the light attracted the attention of enemy
warships and submarines. The NOB command also used “walkie talkie”
two-way radios and Morse code to communicate with its landing craft.
In addition, NOB headquarters featured a direct phone line to
Guadalcanal's Marine headquarters for faster communications between
waterfront operations and Gen. Alexander Vandegrift's command
center.
During the initial stages of the Guadalcanal campaign, the
waters of Iron Bottom Sound concealed numerous Japanese submarines.
With few Allied patrol craft available to defend against this silent
but deadly menace, NOB Cactus provided nightly anti-submarine
patrols. NOB's patrols were comprised three LCPs, each responsible
for a different part of the sound. The crews fitted their boats with
depth charges set for 50 feet, a depth that could have sunk an enemy
sub as well as the landing craft. During an initial patrol, a
Japanese mini-sub surfaced near Evans' LCP and heard the landing
craft's loud engine. The sub commander turned a flood lamp on the
source of the noise to see the depth-charge equipped landing craft,
and he crash-dived his sub. Evans ordered the coxswain to speed
toward the sub's last seen position to drop the depth charge;
however, shocked by the search light, the coxswain instinctively
sped away from the light. They had missed the opportunity to be the
world's first landing craft to sink a submarine.
Referred to
as the “taxis to hell,” Dexter's watercraft supported regular Marine
patrols and reconnaissance missions along Guadalcanal's shoreline
and to distant islands. In September, NOB landing craft also began
supporting reconnaissance missions composed of native scouts and
Marines. British Colonial Forces officers led these nighttime
operations and Dexter detached Evans to oversee their water
transportation.
Marine
strategists not only planned frontal and flank attacks against enemy
positions, they occasionally landed troops on beaches behind enemy
lines. NOB Cactus provided water transportation for most all of
these amphibious landings. For example, at about 1:00 p.m. on
Sunday, September 27, Munro and Evans supervised a flotilla of NOB
Cactus landing craft transporting Lt. Col. Lewis “Chesty” Puller's
First Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, of 488 men. NOB Cactus
watercraft landed the Marines near Point Cruz, a Japanese stronghold
located over four miles due west of NOB Cactus along the north shore
of Guadalcanal.
After landing the Marines, Munro took the NOB
Cactus fleet back to base, but Evans remained behind with an LCP to
take-off wounded Marines.
To
expedite evacuation of the wounded, Evans positioned his boat close
to shore and enemy machine gun fire raked the landing craft,
striking coxswain Roberts in the neck. With Roberts bleeding badly,
Evans sped his damaged boat back to NOB Cactus to seek medical
attention. Evans landed Roberts at the NOB waterfront, but the
coxswain's wound proved fatal and he passed away the next day.
Roberts would posthumously receive the Navy Cross Medal and become
even more famous for his namesake destroyer escort lost at the
Battle of Leyte Gulf.
By 3:30 that afternoon, Vandergrift's
First Division command post called Dexter's NOB headquarters. A
numerically superior Japanese force at Point Cruz armed with
mortars, machine guns and anti-tank guns had ambushed Puller's
battalion, inflicting heavy casualties. Dexter's orders were to
evacuate the Marines as soon as possible. Dexter stepped out of the
headquarters shack and shouted down to Munro and Evans on the
waterfront, “Will you two lead these boats to take them off?”
Munro's rapid response was “Hell, yes!” Evans recalled later, “The
three of us had done duty together for a long time, and I'm sure the
commander knew the answer before he asked.”
By about 4:00
p.m., Evans, Munro and Navy coxswain Walter Bennett had disembarked
an LCP to lead the NOB Cactus flotilla back to Point Cruz with Munro
serving as the officer in charge. To locate elements of the
beleaguered Marine battalion, Munro and Evans steered their LCP up
to the beach under fire. After making contact with the Marines, they
maneuvered the boat into an exposed position to provide cover for
the evacuation and draw the enemy's fire. Using their dual .30
caliber equipped LCP as a floating machine gun nest, Munro and his
shipmates fought Japanese machine gunners at close range and
orchestrated the evacuation of the troops.
In the span of
only 30 minutes, all the Marines except the dead were safely loaded
into the waiting NOB boats. The flotilla of landing craft began the
four-mile return trip to NOB Cactus, but Evans and Munro remained
behind to assist one of the Navy Landing Craft, Tanks (LCTs)
grounded on the beach. While they helped pull the LCT off the beach,
the Japanese set-up a machine gun on the beach and raked Munro's
LCP. The enemy fusillade wounded the entire crew except Evans.
Bennett suffered non-fatal wounds from the incoming rounds and later
received the Navy Cross Medal for his role in the action. Directing
the landing craft and manning his air-cooled .30 caliber Lewis
machine gun, Munro suffered a serious neck wound as had Roberts in
the initial landings.
 Munro's boats
had evacuated all survivors of Puller's battalion, including 25
wounded. Unfortunately, Munro had taken a bullet to the neck at the
base of his skull. Evans failed to realize his friend's dire
situation until another man motioned him forward to the bow, where
Munro lay slumped down in his forward gun position.
Evans
knelt down beside Munro, who asked, “Did we get them all off?”
Evans later recounted Munro's final moment: “And seeing my
affirmative nod, he smiled with that smile I knew and liked so well,
and then he was gone.”
Doug Munro (left) had laid down his life to
ensure the survival of Puller's battalion. On the recommendation of
Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, Munro posthumously received the
Medal of Honor, the only one ever awarded to a Coast Guardsman. In
the condolence letter to Munro's parents, Dexter referred to his
fallen friend as “one of my boys.” Later in the letter, he wrote
that “[Munro's] loss has left a very decided space in which I feel
will never be filled .”
By November 1942, the first wave of
Marines and Coast Guardsmen had served on Guadalcanal for three
months. Hundreds of Americans had made the ultimate sacrifice,
including Munro and several other Coast Guardsmen. Thousands were
also lost to disease and those who managed to survive were mere
shadows of their former selves. Men who had arrived on the Canal at
an average weight had lost 30 or more pounds due to sleep
deprivation, overexertion, a steady diet of C-rations and
mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria. They were no longer fit
for duty and rotated off the line or back to the states for
rehabilitation.
Among the NOB men coming off the island were
Dexter and Evans. Dexter had earned the respect and admiration of
those who served under him at NOB Cactus. Some of his men broke down
and cried when he informed the crew he was heading home. He received
a promotion in rank and the Navy awarded him the Silver Star Medal
for his command of NOB Cactus. His medal citation aptly states, “By
his courage in the face of great hardship and danger, he set an
example which was an inspiration to all who served with him.” Dexter
later completed a career in the Coast Guard and retired as a rear
admiral.
 Before rotating back to the states, Evans flew from Guadalcanal
to Noumea, New Caledonia, for an audience with Vice Adm. Halsey.
While aboard Halsey's flagship, USS Argonne, Evans received a field
promotion from signalman first class to chief petty officer. In
early 1943, he received the Navy Cross Medal for the Point Cruz
evacuation and he later received an officer's commission. His Navy
Cross citation concludes, “By his great personal valor, skill and
outstanding devotion to duty in the face of grave danger, he
contributed directly to the success of his mission by saving the
lives of many who otherwise might have perished.”
Before
redeploying, both he and Dexter paid their respects to Munro at
Guadalcanal's military cemetery, hallowed ground the Americans had
cleared of the jungle and the Japanese.
By December 1942, the
defeat of Japanese forces on the Canal appeared likely. U.S. Army
Gen. Alexander Patch relieved Marine Gen. Vandergrift and President
Franklin Roosevelt awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC) to
the battered First Marine Division. The “First Marine Division,
Reinforced” received the award and the word “Reinforced” honored
support units, such as NOB Cactus and its men. In addition to the
PUC, which equates to the Navy Cross Medal on an individual basis,
various NOB Cactus crewmembers received further honors and
recognitions. These included the Purple Heart Medal, Navy
Commendation Medal, Silver Star Medal, Navy Cross Medal, as well as
Munro's posthumous Medal of Honor. Like Roberts, Evans and Munro
would become namesakes for U.S. military vessels and Coast Guard
installations, including the Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard
Headquarters Building in Washington, D.C.
Coast Guard
personnel serving on Guadalcanal received dozens of medals for
heroism, making the campaign one of the most honored Coast Guard
combat operations in service history.
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Cover of the March 1943 Coast Guard Magazine reads: “Jap
Trophy-Comdr. Dwight Dexter, USCG, displays autographed flag taken
from Jap soldier.” (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy image)
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In February 1943, Army
Gen. Patch declared Guadalcanal secured of all Japanese military
forces. After that, the Allies remained on the offensive for the
rest of the Pacific War and the Japanese fought a lengthy retreat
back to their home islands. Doug Munro, Ray Evans, Dwight Dexter and
their NOB Cactus shipmates were all members of the long blue line
and lived up to the Service's core values of honor, respect and
devotion to duty.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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