The Coast Guard’s only Medal of Honor recipient died while rescuing Marines

Just over a month after the hellish battle for control of Guadalcanal, then Marine Lt. Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller ordered elements of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines to conduct a reconnaissance mission into Peninsula Point Cruz along the Matanikau River.

That part of the island was used as a staging area for Japanese forces to regroup and launch further attacks, especially against the weakly occupied Allied airfield called Henderson Field.

Due to miscommunication and miscues, that reconnaissance mission quickly turned deadly.

“On September 27, a message from the group was misinterpreted or ambiguous, leading division headquarters to believe they had crossed the river and were fighting there,” the National WWII Museum said. “This resulted in the order for three companies of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (to land) via landing craft on a beach west of Point Cruz to attack from the rear.”

On that date, Petty Officer Douglas Munro led the group of 24 Higgins boats and placed nearly 500 Marines on the beachhead with the mission to wipe out the Japanese staging area.

However, within an hour of landing, the Marines were in danger of being pushed back into the sea, amid crushing Japanese bombardments and gunfire.

The Higgins crews were still refueling when they received the message that the Marines were to withdraw immediately. When asked by his commanding officer if the Coast Guard was capable of going back and freeing the overwhelmed Marines, the 22-year-old Munro reportedly said confidently, “Hell, yeah!”

Born in October 1919 to an American father and British mother, the then 19-year-old Munro enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in August 1939 as war loomed and the likelihood of an impending draft was all but certain.

But his journey from enlistment to combat in the Pacific was not linear.

“Coast Guard training was virtually non-existent by the end of 1939,” the museum said. Sworn in on September 18, Munro and 18 other recruits “were sent to Air Station Port Angeles, where the staff there had no idea what to do with them. For three days they peeled potatoes, mowed grass and helped with the maintenance of the boat.”

After three days of menial labor, Munro was selected as a crewman aboard the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Spencer, and the following year he was transferred to the transport ship USS Hunter Liggett to train as a landing craft helmsman.

When the US entered the war, Munro was headed to the Pacific – and Guadalcanal.

After participating in several landings during the Guadalcanal campaign, Munro did not hesitate on September 27.

“The Marines were driven back to the beach and many had no radios to call for help,” the USO said. “A single ‘HELP’ spelled out in T-shirts on the ridge near the beach sent a loud and clear message to the spectators.”

“Under constant fire from enemy machine guns on the island, and at great risk to his life, Munro daringly led five of his small craft to shore,” his Medal of Honor citation read. “As he neared the beach he signaled to the others to land, and then, in order to draw the fire of the enemy and protect the heavily laden boats, he gallantly placed his vessel with its two small guns as a shield between the bridgehead and the beach. Japanese.”

While using his landing craft to protect the beleaguered Marines from withering enemy fire, an enemy bullet struck the base of Munro’s skull. His best friend and fellow crew member Raymond J. Evans took the wheel and continued Munro’s mission until the Marines were safely back at the Allied-occupied Lunga Point location.

It was there that Munro briefly regained consciousness and asked his final question: “Did they get out?”

Evans replied that he did, with Munro reportedly dying with a smile on his lips.

Munro was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military award in May 1943, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt presenting the Medal of Honor to Munro’s parents, James and Edith.