HourGlass Interviews, Page Two
With the kind permission of the staff and Editor of the Hourglass, we present the interviews & information they printed with many of the Raiders and family members who traveled to Kwajalein in 2003 to dedicate the plaque to the brave Raider prisoners who were executed there by the Japanese during the war/

Marine Raiders tell their own stories of war life

By Jan Waddell Reporter

In 1942, an elite fighting force took shape, the Marine Raiders. In two short years these young men would make their mark in history with well-known campaigns such as, Guam, Okinawa, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Those who were there also remember other battles, like Makin Island.

After the Makin battle, 30 Marine Raiders were unaccounted for. In 1999, the Joint Personnel Accounting Command, then-Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, recovered and repatriated 19 who died during the battle and were buried on Butaritari Island. For many, the fate of the remaining 11 Marine Raiders remains a mystery.

Several WWII Marine Raiders, along with other veterans, will visit Kwajalein, Nov. 8-12, to attend the dedication of the Makin Raider monument which honors their fallen and missing comrades. They will participate in the dedication of the monument, Veterans Day ceremonies and the United States Marine Corps 228th Birthday Ball along with several other activities. Some of the veterans attending the ceremonies have provided some brief information about themselves.

Elmer Mapes — Mapes was a 2nd Battalion Raider, but didn’t join the Raiders until several months after they returned from the Makin Raid. He took part in the Bougainville, Solomon Islands Campaign, the liberation of Guam and the Okinawa Campaign. His battalion, which was at that time the 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, was the first to set foot in Japan.

Mapes was 20 years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served for three years, one month and one day. His hometown was Muscatine, Iowa and currently lives in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Ashley (Bill) W. Fisher — Fisher enlisted on Jan. 27, 1942, at age 16. He served in the guard detachment on Ford Island until he joined B Company, 2nd Raider Battalion, on Sept. 4, 1942.He did not participate in the raid on Makin, but served with the Raiders through 1943, including the Long Patrol on Guadalcanal.

Fisher served 38 years on active duty and as a reservist, retiring at the rank of major. He was born and raised in Memphis, Tenn., and now lives in Brighton, Tenn., 36 miles north of Memphis. “I know I speak for all of us that we are especially grateful to Jack Miller for conceiving this memorial and to Dr. [Lewis] Bernstein [SMDC historian] for his diligence,” Fisher said. “It is long over due.”

Jack Freeling — Freeling was in the 4th Marine Raiders. He was at Kwajalein on his way to the Guam Operation in mid-1944.He enlisted at Kansas City, Mo. at 19 years of age, and was discharged in 1945.Col. James Roosevelt selected him with three others for the 4th Raider Battalion after only a 10-minute interview. He carried a B.A.R. [Browning Automatic Rifle] in the early part of the war, an M-1 rifle and, during his last trip, a carbine.

“We did make the landings at New Georgia and Vangunu in 1943 and a landing on an unnamed Solomon Island, reported to have a Jap outpost,” Freeling said. “It was reported by a low-flying Navy pilot on his way back to the island of Guadalcanal. He thought he saw a Jap outpost. Turned out, the Navy and Marines ran us out on the S168 Nautilus and made a landing that scared the h--- out of a bunch of Army guys. Lucky no one was hurt. Case of lack of communicating at the time,” he added. According to Freeling, the Japanese left him with a piece of shrapnel in his arm, which has moved up about four inches, resulting in the loss of some dexterity.“[The war] kept me off the streets and out of jail,” Freeling said. “Pay at discharge with overseas add-on was $69.30, as a corporal.”

Ervin Kaplan — Kaplan was born June 19, 1918, in Independence, Iowa. He attended premedical school in Chicago from 1937-40, which was interrupted when he enlisted in the Marines, May 12, 1941.He attended boot camp and radio school at San Diego with H and S Company, 2nd Marines at Camp Elliot. Kaplan volunteered for 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Feb. 1942, at first call. He trained as a radioman at Jacque’s Farm, San Clemente and Oahu. Following the Makin battle he embarked for Midway.

Kaplan was at Espiritus Santo, New Hebrides with Company E during the assault landing at Aola Bay, Guadalcanal, Nov. 4, 1942, and completed a 30-day guerrilla mission behind Japanese lines. He was also involved in the battle at Asamana village, Nov. 11, 1942, and the battle of Numa-Numa Trail, Nov. 19, 1943. After disbandment of Raiders he returned to San Diego, Feb. 14, 1944.

George MacRae - MacRae was 25 when he joined the Marines earning the nickname “Pop” by the 17-year-olds.He stayed almost four years and then received a medical discharge. MacRae is from Avalon, Catalina Island, Calif., but was born in Halifax, Canada. He currently lives in Virginia Beach, Va. MacRae was a private and a rifleman for the Raiders and carried a B.A.R. He also worked as a demolition man at Emirau. He arrived late as a Raider and only saw action at Bougainville, Emirau and Guam, where he was wounded by a sniper and spent two years in a naval hospital in California.

MacRae remembered Kwajalein during the war as “only of riding around in a small boat, in a rain squall, at night, looking for the ship that had our mail,” MacRae said. “We were on the way to invade Guam in July 1944 and came to Kwajalein to await a date for landing at Guam.”

Mel Heckt — Heckt enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 19 and served 30 months. He came from Grundy Center, Iowa, and now resides in Golden Valley, Minn. Heckt trained as a Marine Raider replacement at Camp Pendleton until the Raiders were disbanded Feb.1, 1944. He became a member of the 4^th Marine Regiment and fought the Japanese on Emirau.

“Fortunately, the Japanese had departed a few days before we landed,” Heckt said. “Thanks to our admiral prevailing over Gen. MacArthur, we landed on Emirau instead of the general’s designation, namely Kavieng. There were 200,000 to 400,000 Japanese troops on Kavieng. Had the general won the argument, I undoubtedly would not be going to Kwajalein,” he added.

“I was a machine gunner on Guam, a squad leader and then section leader and also platoon leader on Okinawa. I ended up a Corporal and was sent back to Quantico for officer training when the war ended.” “Out of 53 machine gunners who made the first wave on Okinawa, I was one of four who were not wounded or killed,” Heckt said. “I received a bronze star for my service on Sugar Loaf Hill. The Marines were knocked off this hill 11 times before capturing it.

“We set up our evening perimeter, the first night on Okinawa. I heard a Marine yelling for help!” Heckt said. “I got five other Marines who had been Raiders, and started down this thick brush ravine. This Marine started to swear at us to hurry up. His profanity would have made an old salt blush. I swore back and advised we were coming as fast as we could.”

“We get down to the bottom of the ravine and who is lying in a ditch, pinned down by a Japanese machine gun, but the most beloved chaplain in the Raiders and 4th Marines, Father Paul Redmond,” Heckt added. “My face is red to this day.” “At his 90th birthday party I went up to him as he was sitting in his wheel chair and said, ‘I am Mel Heckt from Minnesota., I promise not to swear at you tonight if you promise not to swear at me.’ He remembered.”

Ben Carson — Ben Carson was a private, 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Marine Raider Battalion Carson was on the Makin Raid, fought on Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Iwo Jima where he was wounded on his 22nd birthday.

“After I got out of the hospital at Pearl Harbor, I returned to what was left of our former battalion and was almost immediately recruited as a squad leader in a newly formed recon platoon,” Carson said. “While playing cops and robbers in the hills of the Big Island of Hawaii I learned that Japan had surrendered. Immediately I began making homecoming plans since I had accrued 123 points toward my discharge and people with 78 points were going home. The Marine Corps succinctly reminded me that I had signed up for a four-year hitch and I had four months more to serve.” Carson continued, “I was appointed an acting platoon sergeant and placed in charge of a mob of 32, just graduated, recruits destined for the occupation of Kyushu Island, Japan.” “The morning we landed at the Sasabo Naval Station seaplane ramp, the contingent officer questioned me as to what controls I had taken to prevent the most feared incident that could screw up an occupation, an accidental discharge of a weapon,” Carson said. “I showed that officer the contents of my back-pack. Every single ammunition clip and rifle round issued to my mob was in my pack.”

“As a Makin Raider I performed all the duties that could possibly be assigned to a rear rank private. Everything from peeling potatoes to operating the enlisted men’s toilet on the Argonaut submarine underway to Makin,” Carson said. “My official post was tommy gunner in a three-person fire group.”

“My only memory of Kwajalein during the war was a brief touchdown and refueling of our hospital plane, on our way from Guam to Pearl Harbor. The greatest impression made upon that group of shot up gyrenes, at that brief stop, was the pilot and co-pilot supporting an almost inert navigator who, apparently had just been rescued from some officers’ bar, and as that trio passed through us sitting on the floor of the plane, the skipper kept assuring everyone that the inert figure would not be permitted to drive.”

Lewis Marsh, son of Raider Dan Marsh

Lewis Marsh was Dan Marsh’s youngest child. When he was five-years-old the family moved to Phoenix, where they live today. He went to Bible college and is a minister, serving Christ’s Church on the River in Parker, Ariz., where he has been for 16 years.

His father, Dan Marsh signed up to be a Marine right after Pearl Harbor and trained at the Marine Recruit Training Depot in San Diego. After graduating, he spent time training others, guarding the newly formed Camp Pendleton, until it was established, and preparing to go overseas. He heard about the Raiders right as he left for a weekend leave. By the time he returned, a buddy joined the 2nd Raiders. Marsh interviewed and joined Company D, which later changed to Company Q, of the 4th Raiders. He served with the 4th Raider Battalion throughout its entire existence. He fought with them in New Georgia and transferred to the 3rd Battalion when the Raiders became the 4th Marines.

He served there under Stormy Sexton, throughout the campaigns of Guam and Okinawa. He was among the Marines who occupied Japan. Returning home, Marsh married, had two girls and then shipped off to Korea, where he served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines of the 1st Marine Division. He fought in the Chosin Reservoir campaign and operations on the southern and central front before returning home.

“Almost six years ago my father and I put together the first Web site on the internet solely devoted to the Raiders,” Lewis said. The Web site is www.usmcraiders.com. “It’s still there today and has a lot of info on him and the Raiders that I know you’d find helpful. He wrote the original articles, I do the Web page design and posting.”

John McCarthy —  McCarthy is an honorary member of the Marine Raider Association and editor of the Raider Patch, a quarterly newsletter. He served in the United States Army in the 2nd Infantry Division, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion.

A family friend and a man who was engaged to McCarthy’s sister, Robert B. Maulding, was an original member of the Carlson’s 2nd Raider Battalion. Maulding was killed in action during the Makin Raid. “I am indeed looking forward to our visit to Kwajalein and bringing final closure to the Makin story,” McCarthy said. “Bob Maulding was one of the 19 Raiders discovered, recovered and repatriated by CILHI and I worked very closely with them during the ID process. “Thirteen Raiders were buried at that time,” he added. “Six were buried at the hometowns at the requests of family.”

William Carroll — William Carroll, originally from Indiana, enlisted in the Marines at 18. He was a 2nd Battalion Marine Raider in the battles at Guam, Bougainville, Solomon Islands Campaign and Okinawa. Carroll hasn’t seen Kwajalein since 1944, when his ship was on its way to invade Guam, and they stopped off on Kwaj. to stretch their legs, according to Carroll. “We got a couple of warm beers,” he said, “I can’t believe there is anything but sand there [Kwajalein].”

When the Raiders disbanded, he became member of weapons company, 4th Marine Regiment. He also participated in the initial occupation of Yokosuka, Japan, with the 4th Marines. “I was a rifleman and a member of rifle platoon and later a platoon runner in weapons company,” Carroll said. Oct. 31, 2003