09/27/2024
Today we would like to honor one of our very own. Douglas Munro, MOH recipient (Posthumously) Signalman First Class Douglas A. Munro. On 27 September 1942 at Guadalcana SM1 Munro was put in charge of the Higgins boats assigned to land 500 Marines. At 1230, the boats were away, headed towards the shore. A thousand yards out, SM1 Munro noticed a reef and led the small fleet of landing craft around it, putting the Marines ashore about 100 yards off their target. The Higgins boats beached, deposited the men, and returned to Lunga Point. The boat crews were still refueling the landing craft when word came down that the Marines they had just landed needed to be pulled out immediately. Evans (his closest friend) recalled that when their commanding officer asked if they were ready to go back and get the Marines off the beach, Munro replied, “Hell, yeah!” With Munro leading the way, the boat crews sped back to the beach to extract the overwhelmed Marines.
Arriving at the rendezvous spot, the boats quickly came under withering fire from the beach. One coxswain yelled to Munro to fall back, rescue wasn’t possible, but Munro refused to leave the Marines. Positioning his landing craft parallel to the shore so Evans could provide covering fire for the Marines, Munro held station as the beleaguered men swam out to the landing craft. As the last Marines loaded into landing craft, Munro turned his boat to lead the group back to Lunga Point. Noticing a landing craft stuck on the reef, Munro pulled alongside it, where Marines tied a tow rope to it. After several minutes under fire, the landing craft was free, and Munro pulled it behind.
Evans noticed a trail of waterspouts nearby as Japanese bullets got nearer to the boats. He yelled to Munro to get down, but it was too late. Evans watched as a bullet struck Munro and he fell to the deck. Evans grabbed the wheel and sped back to Lunga Point. Beaching the boat, he jumped down to Munro, who had just regained consciousness. Munro asked Evans, “Did they get off?” Evans replied the Marines had, and Munro, age 22, passed away.
In May 1943, President Roosevelt presented the Medal of Honor to Munro’s parents, James and Edith. A few short hours later, Edith raised her hand, swore an oath, and joined the Coast Guard. She had persisted when the Coast Guard was reluctant to allow her to join—she was 48, and a Gold Star Mother of a Medal of Honor recipient. At her own insistence, she went through boot camp as any recruit would do, requesting no special treatment. She earned a commission in the SPARS, ran the Coast Guard Barracks in Seattle, and was discharged in late 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant.