Leaving Mac Behind: The Lost Marines of Guadalcanal by Geoffrey W. Roecker (review)
Colonel William Preston McLaughlin
Marine Corps History, Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2020, pp. 129-130 (Review)
Published by Marine Corps University Press
For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796396/summary
[ Access provided at 25 Sep 2021 05:51 GMT with no institutional affiliation ]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. WINTER 2020 129
Colonel William Preston McLaughlin, USMC (Ret)
Leaving Mac Behind: The Lost Marines of Guadalcanal. By Geoffrey W. Roecker. (Brimscombe, UK: Fonthill Media, 2019. $36.95 cloth.)
Author Geoffrey Roecker has written a book that landing and seizing the island and airfield in August contributes greatly to understanding the dire situ- 1942. Maps and intelligence about Guadalcanal and ation facing the United States in the Guadalcanal the surrounding islands were poor until later link- campaign of 1942–43. Roecker created the research ing up with W. F. Martin Clemens, a district officer initiative MissingMarines to highlight the stories of and coastwatcher for the Royal Australian Navy on Marines whose remains were not recovered during the Guadalcanal and a volunteer in the British Solomon World War II era and to support missing in action Islands Defence Force, and a group of native Solomon recovery efforts. He is also an accomplished, award- Islander scouts working with him. winning copywriter in Manhattan by day and spends Roecker does a superb job reviewing primary his spare time researching and writing about this cru- historical sources on what the fighting was like and cial subject. how battle losses were documented. The policy on In 1942, Imperial Japan was victorious in the graves registration had not been explored much since early months of the Second World War after Pearl the First World War. The United States’ hold on the Harbor and the fall of the Philippines, Hong Kong, land, sea, and air around Guadalcanal was tenuous at Singapore, Malaya, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies. best. The current doctrine of the time was to create The majority of Australia’s military forces fighting in local unit field cemeteries and to employ field buri- North Africa felt unprotected and had to respond in als when conditions did not allow the fighting unit the New Guinea island chain. The Southern Pacific to return with the remains of their fallen comrades. sea lines of communication run past the Solomon Is- In the extremely humid and densely vegetated tropi- lands, which were long a UK and Australian sphere cal terrain, immediate burial was preferred as remains of influence. Japan had landed troops in this island quickly began to decompose. The problem with field chain and started building an airfield and base on the burials was that the maps provided to the Marines at largest island of Guadalcanal. This would have effec- the beginning of the campaign were grossly inaccu- tively led to the extension of their air and naval forces’ rate; often reports of field burial were either inaccu- operational reach from the large base at Rabaul, New rate or difficult to ascertain by landmark positions. Guinea. The 1st Marine Division under Major Gen- To add to the problems of mapmaking and in- eral Alexander A. Vandegrift had been tasked with telligence, early on the division intelligence officer, G-2, Colonel Frank Bryan Goettge, led the ill-fated “Goettge patrol” outside friendly lines into what some Col William Preston McLaughlin is currently an adjunct professor at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of Washington, DC, and served in think could have been a trap set by a Japanese pris- the Marine Corps for 27-plus years. He holds three master’s degrees and oner. All but two of the patrol perished in the fight. is a joint qualified officer graduate of the Joint and Combined Warfight- ing Course. McLaughlin was the 1998 recipient of the Dr. Elihu Rose A combat patrol was sent out to search for them but Award for Teaching Excellence, and he has previously served as associ- only dismembered remains were found and the area ate professor and acting chair of the National Security program on the was deemed too dangerous to stay and conduct a hasty faculty of MCU’s Amphibious Warfare School, as program manager at the Krause Center for Leadership and Ethics, and as adjunct faculty at field burial. This is the first group of many that the au- The Citadel. thor lists as missing Marines whose retrieval should be 130 MARINE CORPS HISTORY VOL. 6, NO. 2 pursued. Later in the twentieth and early twenty-first rades behind and to provide closure to the families centuries, dental records, archaeological techniques, of the missing. Roecker’s description of the wartime and the use of DNA in forensic science have led to expediencies of field cemeteries and burials show the some successful identification and repatriation of re- stark contrast to the immensely detailed processes mains to the United States. The author also recounts used by the military’s Mortuary Affairs personnel to- the creation of the 1st Marine Division Cemetery on day and the extraordinary means exerted to recover Guadalcanal, which eventually became the Army-Na- fallen or missing personnel from the conflict zones of vy-Marine Corps Cemetery as the fight expanded and the Global War on Terrorism. It emphasizes the severe Guadalcanal eventually transitioned into a rear area conditions under which the Guadalcanal campaign naval/air and service of supply base. The Marines and was fought and what a close-run thing it was after sailors buried there were often visited by their com- Pearl Harbor. rades and their gravesites were given personal touch- It should also be noted that historians, along es. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once visited and was with scientific and archaeological personnel, bring visibly moved by the cemetery’s size and the care it key skills to the search and recovery process of miss- was given. ing personnel from earlier wars. Forensic capabilities Careful recording of burial or reinterment of working alongside detailed historical understanding field burials was crucial and was part of a policy to are key force multipliers in these efforts and have led locate and return the remains of missing servicemem- to a significantly higher success rate than in the past. bers to their families in the United States. A large The United States is fortunate to have had such he- postwar expedition by Army Graves Registration Ser- roes who fought on Guadalcanal, and this latest book vice personnel relocated all of the remains from this is crucial in understanding how we can bring them large field cemetery to either the United States or to home. Recovery operations occur across the Pacific the “punchbowl” cemetery of the Pacific in Oahu, Ha- and Asia, but also in Europe. A current field opera- waii. The field burials of patrol members such as the tion occurs on Betio (Tarawa), which is ongoing. Marine Raiders and other units, as well as missing air- This book is highly recommended for the train- craft, proved the most elusive. Often the search teams ing of Marines and sailors in personnel accountability had to relent and note the remains as unrecoverable. and mortuary affairs. It is also a key historical account Roecker started this book as he explored his in understanding sea denial and sea control in great own family’s history in World War II. His depth of re- power competition between the United States, the search is phenomenal and goes from wartime accounts United Kingdom, Australia, and Imperial Japan dur- to the present. He and his colleagues, including or- ing World War II. It should be considered for use by ganizations like History Flight, have provided invalu- the History Division at Marine Corps University for able service to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting professional development and should be nominated Agency. Handling losses that go back more than 75 for inclusion on the Commandant’s Reading List. years, this public-private partnership has been invalu- •1775• able in keeping promises to never leave fallen com-