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Introduction and Admin Questions / Re: 18th Marines
« on: November 10, 2025, 02:08:58 pm »
I have not been on the forum for years but was here about when it started.
My father was in the 18th combat engineers. He was in combat at Guadalcanal then went to Wellington NZ to train as a combat engineer, flamethrower demolition carrier. He almost never spoke of combat until near the end of his life but often talked about the great marines he served with. After Tarawa he was at Saipan and Tinian.
A squad of combat engineers led by Lt Alan Gordon Leslie along with the scouts and snipers led by Lt Deane Hawkins were the first to land on Tarawa, on the long pier, before the main landing. Their job, to rid the pier and it environment of the enemy. As Col Joseph Alexander writes in his book about Tarawa, it was a futile landing but did kill lots of the enemy on the pier and its surroundings.
My father told me it was very difficult to get to the beach after the man assault started.
About 20 years ago I managed to make contact with the family of Lt Leslie, who were from Portland, Oregon. I spoke to Lt. Leslies sister whose name was Lotta. She was 95 years old when we spoke. When i told her who I was and that my father served with her brother she broke into tears. She told me her brother often spoke of the team the led onto the pier. Lt Leslie died in 1989. His daughter told be she should visit him in the facility he lived in. He would be staring into space. She asked him what he was thinking about. He would always say, "my boys'
Since my father almost never spoke of his time in combat unit near the end of his life I don't know much more than he reluctantly told me. One day we were talking, not about the war, when he suddenly said, "you don't know ho terrible it was to set human beings on fire. I know they were trying to kill me but hey were still human beings" It haunted him all of his life. Carrying the flamethrower was a very dangerous job.
My father was in the 18th combat engineers. He was in combat at Guadalcanal then went to Wellington NZ to train as a combat engineer, flamethrower demolition carrier. He almost never spoke of combat until near the end of his life but often talked about the great marines he served with. After Tarawa he was at Saipan and Tinian.
A squad of combat engineers led by Lt Alan Gordon Leslie along with the scouts and snipers led by Lt Deane Hawkins were the first to land on Tarawa, on the long pier, before the main landing. Their job, to rid the pier and it environment of the enemy. As Col Joseph Alexander writes in his book about Tarawa, it was a futile landing but did kill lots of the enemy on the pier and its surroundings.
My father told me it was very difficult to get to the beach after the man assault started.
About 20 years ago I managed to make contact with the family of Lt Leslie, who were from Portland, Oregon. I spoke to Lt. Leslies sister whose name was Lotta. She was 95 years old when we spoke. When i told her who I was and that my father served with her brother she broke into tears. She told me her brother often spoke of the team the led onto the pier. Lt Leslie died in 1989. His daughter told be she should visit him in the facility he lived in. He would be staring into space. She asked him what he was thinking about. He would always say, "my boys'
Since my father almost never spoke of his time in combat unit near the end of his life I don't know much more than he reluctantly told me. One day we were talking, not about the war, when he suddenly said, "you don't know ho terrible it was to set human beings on fire. I know they were trying to kill me but hey were still human beings" It haunted him all of his life. Carrying the flamethrower was a very dangerous job.