In Memory of
Pvt. William Niader
1st Div 7th Reg H&S Co USMC
KIA June 12, 1945
Kunishi Ridge, Okinawa
Honor your heros. This page for anyone who would like a friend or loved one remembered. The branch of service does not matter, nor does the area in which they served. Please send me a short history and a picture to: pfcsouth@yahoo.com.
First hand account of the Battle of Point Cruz, Guadalcanal
26-27 Sept 1942 by W. Ray Thomas HQ-1-7-1 USMC
In Memory Of
PFC James J. Queen,
U S Army, 81st (Wildcat) Div,
323 Inf Reg, Co E
"At the grave of a Hero we bend, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss but with contagion of his courage, and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight."
Frank Niader, Clifton N.J.
Brother of Pvt. William Niader USMC
KIA October 26, 1944 when he was killed by a land mine in the Central Combat Zone. His unit was clearing caves. Although we have not confirmed it, PFC Queen was probably one of nine men from Co. E that were killed when the Japanese remotely detonated a bomb that was buried as a land mine. Twenty other men from Co. E were wounded by that same explosion.
Submitted by Kenny Jenkins,
Nephew of PFC Queen.
W. Ray Thomas
Rule Guidry piloted a Higgins Boat (SLCU # 32) while attached to the 1st Marines during the Battle of Peleliu.
Submitted by Jack LeBlanc
Nephew of Rule Guidry
Rule Guidry USN
(middle standing)
Jim Garner (Age 16) in Australia in 1943 while the 1st was recovering after Guadalcanal.
James Charles Garner
USMC May 1942 until May 1946
1st Marine Division 7th Regiment
2nd Battalion Headquarters Company
Guadacanal 6 days 9/42 - New Britain 45 days 12/43
Peleieu 45 days 9/44 - Okinawa 4 months 4/45
He made three beach landings....he throughly enjoyed your site, it brought back a lot of memories - - - He was fortune enough to have survied Peleieu and go on to Okinawa, as you know they were preparing to invade Japan until President Truman authorized the use of the Atom bomb and saved untold American lives.
He was 16 when the picture was taken - he joined the corp when he was 15. He had a choice of weapons since he carried a radio on his back - at times he had a "code talker" assigned to him.
William Niader and buddies. Please email me if anyone can identify any of these Marines with Bill.
PFC Alfred Richard "Dick" Perry, from Connecticut
USMC, B Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines
He served in Peleliu and then Okinawa, where he was transferred to C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. He was killed in action on June 10, 1945.
Merrill Thomas Randolph Sr. (Randy) left home at 16 and joined the military under an assumed name because of his age. I'm not sure how long he was in the Army, but I do know he was in the Air Force in 1942 when he and my mother married. Shortly thereafter he was sent to the Pacific theater and he saw combat in WWII as a tail gunner. Randy was born in 1909 so he was 33 in 1942. Certainly not old - but older than most draftees who were in their 20's. Randy tried to connect with his brother-in-law, Joe South, when they were both stationed in the Pacific. Everywhere he was transferred he would ask around. There were networks both informal and official for this sort of thing but they never connected. He somehow contracted malaria during this time and this bothered him on and off for several years but it finally resolved.
After the war Randy was stationed in Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico, a (now decommissioned) Strategic Air Command base. He was "boom operator" in a Air Refueling Squadron. He was also stationed at Malstrom AFB in Billings, Montana. He retired from Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona in 1960 after having served a combined total of 28 years in the military.
(Written by his son, my uncle, Merrill Randolph)
“Only the accumulated praise of time will pay proper tribute to our valiant dead. Long after those who lament their immediate loss are themselves dead, these men will be mourned by the Nation.
“They are the Nation’s loss!
“There is talk of great history, of the greatest fight in our history, of unheard-of sacrifice and unheard-of courage. These phrases are correct, but they are prematurely employed.
“Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was.
“The enemy could have displaced every cubic in of volcanic ash on this fortress with concrete pillboxes and blockhouses, which he nearly did, and still victory would not have been in doubt.
“What was in doubt, in all our minds, was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end, or whether the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gun and gunner.
“Let the world count our crosses!
“Let them count them over and over. Then when they understand the significance of the fighting for Iwo Jima, let them wonder how few there are. We understand and we wonder—we who are separated from our dead by a few feet of earth; from death by inches and fractions of an inch.
“The cost to us in quality, one who did not fight side by side with those who fell can never understand.”
Major General Graves B. ErskineCommemorating the fallen after the Battle for Iwo Jima
Randy is second from right
Wearing Air Medal
Randy (kneeling, 2nd from right) at Walker AFB NM
My Uncle Jerry (Ford) survived all 3 campaigns; Guadalcanal, Peleliu and Okinawa my uncle is the 3rd Marine from the left bottom row, he was the oldest Marine in the platoon for all three campaigns and was called the pappy of the platoon. I would like to send this picture in memory of him and the 1st Marines.
Thank you
Kenneth J. Hamby
Roe Milton Shupe was drafted and entered San Diego Navel Base, California on February 29, 1944, he was 36. He had some military training when he was younger as a member of the New Mexico National Guard. This training came back to him and he was able to pick up the drills faster than others.
He was given his orders and assigned to submarine chaser USS SC-1003 which (measuring only 110 feet long and 16 feet wide (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/151003.htm) He had been on the sub chaser for several days and the ocean had been real rough, the spray from the waves crashing over the railing made the deck as slick as ice. “The G.Q. bell rang in the middle of the night, and I jumped into my clothes, climbed the ladder and hit the deck on a run. As I turned around the corner of the gun turret, my feet went out from under me and I slid right over the side of the ship. I threw up my hands just right to grab a half inch cable which ran around the life rail. Had I missed it, I would have dropped off to the bottom of the ocean”.
Roe spent most of his time aboard the SC-1003 in the South Pacific, looking for convoys of Japanese ships. Sometimes those convoy ships would be so close that he was surprised they weren’t seen. Most amazing is that Roe was in the Navy and didn’t even know how to swim.
From his daughter
Cheri Eagar
