Guadalcanal Diary

by Tregaskis, Richard;

  He decided, on Amadvu, to return to Pearl Harbor. “It then took me four days,” he wrote, “to get my orders from the painstaking Mister Ghormley and three more days to make the arrangements with the Army, which did the actual work of hauling me in a plane. By that time I was flat. I had four bucks in cash and a money order for ten bucks which I had borrowed and which nobody would cash without written authorization from Mr. Stimson or Mr. Knox. I arrived in Honolulu with exactly fifty cents.”

  Poor Dick! He must have felt, as his letter said, like the orphan of INS. But Haller, our Honolulu bureau man, promptly fixed that, and in his next letter Dick was cheerier. He had filled in (with steaks, no doubt) at the Pacific Club, he said, and—he was finishing a book.

  “I began it on the Liberator that brought me here. Just set up an office in part of the bomber and typed. The only distraction was a low circle which the pilot described over a certain untouched Polynesian Island. He wanted to see the dusky maidens swimming in the surf and, after looking at nothing but marines, Japs and betel-chewing Melanesian men, I confess I did, too. Shall I send the book?”

  We cabled him to send the book. We did not ask about the maidens.

  That was November first. The manuscript arrived in New York, by clipper and airmail on November 10th and three days later was accepted by Random House. A few days after that it was chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club. Even a Tregaskis who had seen action couldn’t ask for more action than that!

  Of course we wanted Dick to know that his luck still held. It isn’t every day that a youngster—Tregaskis is twenty-six—on the greatest and toughest assignment of his life gets the news in the middle of it that his first book has been taken by the Book-of-the-Month Club. We radioed him at once.

  Here is the answer from our Honolulu bureau: “Tregaskis away indefinitely. Forwarding him copy of your radiogram fastest but delivery indefinite. Haller.”

  We knew what that meant. Uncle Sam doesn’t tell you, even though you are a big press association, when he taps one of your boys for the great adventure.

  Tregaskis had written when he sent the book, “Now that I have had a chance to stretch my legs and feed my gullet, I am set to go joy-riding again.” He has gone.

  We don’t know, as this is written, exactly where Tregaskis is. But we have a pretty good idea—somewhere around that Unmentionable Island again. The American fleet met the Japanese armada and sank or damaged thirty of their warships. We know, because the Navy says so, that the waters are clear where once the Japs sent in their subs and transports. We know our fliers rule the skies. We know the marines are still holding and pushing farther on Guadalcanal. And we suspect that somewhere in the thick of it Dick Tregaskis is telling another story of American valor as he told this one.

  A cable or a radio will come soon, please God, and you bet we will answer back, “Okay, Dick Tregaskis, good luck to you!”

  NOVEMBER 21

  It came.

  AFTERWORD

  by Moana Tregaskis

  The first edition of Guadalcanal Diary was published early in 1943. In the nearly sixty years since that original Random House edition, this classic account of Americans in the Pacific during World War II has been translated throughout the world.

  There are legions of books about war and few that merit the term “history.” This happens because most are written either by historians who did not share the experience, or by those who shared and were not historians. In either case, something is missing. Richard Tregaskis was exceptional. He was a historian who consistently experienced the wars he documented. This is why his writings have the taste and touch of battle combined with the skill of the literary writer.

  A scrupulous taker of notes, meticulous researcher, and diligent questioner, Tregaskis shared in the ordeals of the men he chronicled. While participating, he was uncommonly brave, and two generations of American fighting men accepted him as a member of their team. They talked about him, angular and tall, a bit over six foot six, softspoken and very thin, always writing, watching, questioning, and taking photographs at the height of battle.

  In addition to these traits crucial to the military historian, Richard Tregaskis brought another quality to the battle lines—it distinguishes the great in both soldiers and civilians—he cared deeply about the affairs of the little man. Readers of Guadalcanal Diary and subsequent chronicles quickly realize that the author knows well who the critical personalities are in any war.

  Guadalcanal today may have become a minor speck in the world’s broad sweep; to men who battled there, it is a shrine. Why was this battle important? Its military significance is enormous because its tactics held many firsts: Guadalcanal Diary chronicled the world’s first use of combined air, land, and sea operations, a mission that now is taken for granted. Today, historians are still writing about the battle for Guadalcanal; it will be written about forever.

  Describing the battle that stood as the turning point of the war in the Pacific, Guadalcanal Diary occupies a large place in the annals of war reportage. Americans in moments of courage and fear, discipline and valor, and in vivid times of pain, were recounted by the historian-writer who was with them.

  Guadalcanal Diary was Richard Tregaskis’ first book. In a newspaper reporting career that began in prep school and continued throughout his university years as a history and literature student, Dick paid his dues, covered the Boston police beat, and mastered his craft. When America entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, Dick knew he had to participate, to write about Americans in war. Accredited as a war correspondent for INS, International News Service, he was sent to the Pacific—no one knew an insulin kit lay deep in a pocket, or that tins of sardines crammed his backpack. If anyone asked about his copy of a manual authored by the founder of Boston’s famed Joslin Diabetes clinic, Dick could say it was autographed by a special friend.

  After Guadalcanal, Dick returned to Pearl Harbor to write. Daytime, the Navy locked him up to work with his notebooks and locked up the notebooks at night. The bloody experience of Guadalcanal changed Tregaskis. He was still stunned to be alive, and glad for it. On a smudge of Pacific jungle, he had been with men when their best traits took precedence in the most harrowing conditions. Now the desire to share and to write well about Americans in war grew more intense. The battle on that feverish island changed all those who survived it, yet these men couldn’t bring themselves to talk about their experiences. Richard Tregaskis, who had been with them, told their stories. He saw, felt, and brought readers into the pangs of homesickness, the tales of scrounging, or the moments of humor.

  Leaving the Pacific, Dick chose the European theatre of war. The size fourteen boots Marines called his PTs, for “Patrol Tregaskis,” went along. Eventually, luck deserted him. In the battle for Sicily, on a hill called Mount Corno near Cassino, Dick was hit by German shrapnel. A piece went through his helmet, a part of his brain, and out the other side of the helmet, leaving a gaping jagged hole. Somehow, he staggered to the lines of the American 38th Evacuation Hospital, dragging along the helmet. There, managing to convey the word “diabetic” to a doctor, Major William Pitts of Charlotte, N.C., performed tedious, massive surgery. Within a few months, Dick had learned again to speak, again to use his right hand, and was back to duty; Random House published Invasion Diary in 1944, followed by the novel Stronger Than Fear, centered on an American Army sergeant in Germany.

  Somehow, Dick hung on to that helmet. Today, under the care of the Marine Corps Historical Foundation, it is frequently loaned for museum exhibitions.

  The goal to write well about Americans enduring life-threatening struggles never ceased. Watching, questioning, and sharing in the vicissitudes of Guadalcanal would lead Dick Tregaskis to devote his life and career to documenting Americans in the course of formidable events. From World War II into the 1970s, articles and books sprouted from his pen. In Korea, Dick joined Americans to document the world’s first deployment of helicopter warfare. Arme
d with an ever-present ledger-notebook, in 1960 he began research on the story of America’s first spaceship. Spending long weeks at Edwards Air Force Base, Tregaskis came to know and appreciate the fabled men who flew the big black rocket called the X-l5. While this was not war, Dick knew he was documenting Americans with “the right stuff”; their successes and foibles soared through the words of X-15 Diary.

  With the grievous months on Guadalcanal etched on his soul, Dick reflected on the passage of time. As “after the war” had become a lasting phrase, he was interested in the varied career circuits and stratagems of survivors. Although their paths did not cross in the Solomons, a man he knew in college days was at sea in Guadalcanal waters at the same time Dick was on the island. Now the man was President. While President Kennedy was in office, Dick wrote John F. Kennedy and PT-109. At Harvard, Dick Tregaskis and Jack Kennedy were swimmers, and close friend Torbert MacDonald captained the Harvard football team. At competitions for the varsity swim team backstrokers, Dick trounced Kennedy for a slot on the team; it was a special year—they beat Yale. Years later, the President loaned Dick his personal logs and notes to research the book. As press secretary Pierre Salinger took Dick into the Oval Office, the first thing the President said was, “Pierre, Dick beat me out for the Harvard Varsity Swim Team.” Tregaskis replied, “Sir, if I’d known you would be President, I would have let you win.” Amidst the laughter, one could note that neither President Kennedy nor Congressman MacDonald ever forgot that competition.

  A generation after Guadalcanal and Korea, the regular soldier again welcomed Richard Tregaskis—in Vietnam, once again he chronicled Americans in war. Tours in-country spanned several years; newspapers and magazines documented the course of exigencies he shared with the ordinary fighting man. Vietnam Diary was a definitive eyewitness account of that combat.

  During our life together—despite bouts with diabetes-related complications—Dick kept writing. We returned to Guadalcanal in 1967 where Dick would research an article on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the August 7, 1942, landing. Back on that hallowed soil, nightmares overtook sleep on the island of steaming jungle and mud-ravaged mountain ridges where Tregaskis was with Marine Raiders and parachutists at the battle on Edson’s Bloody Ridge. We trekked on that lonely ridge. Razor-sharp kunai grass overgrew the depressions of American and Japanese foxholes, which still held old pieces of shrapnel and spent bullets. Children collected them to sell as souvenirs.

  I went again to Guadalcanal in 1992—on August 7, monuments were dedicated to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary. Amidst those who survived the brutal fighting to secure the crucial airfield “at all cost,” there is a bond of camaraderie reserved unto themselves. They came—native scouts and veterans—to attend the solemn ceremonies; five wore the Medal of Honor. On lined faces one could see that memories were vivid; perhaps some almost heard again “Red Mike” Edson’s call: “Raiders, Raiders, Raiders rally ’round me.” And still, children collected shrapnel and bullets.

  Dick’s last book is a tribute to a warrior. With his well-earned credentials writing of men at war, Tregaskis was precisely the correct author to research and describe the illustrious, war-stormed life of Hawaii’s Kamehameha the Great. Warrior King remains in print.

  In 1973, Marquis’ “Who’s Who in America” asked for a quote; Dick Tregaskis sent these words: “Reverence for truth, thank God, continues to be a great American ideal. Beauty makes life most pleasant, and humor cushions the worst moments. But courage remains the most valuable of all. My life in many wars has shown me that America has ample stores of all of these values in the face of the most severe mortal dangers.”

  Nearly sixty years after the battle for Guadalcanal, some now may ask: Why did Richard Tregaskis choose to apply his literary talents to chronicle Americans in war? The reason is plain—he was devoted to his country and to its vigor. In this new century of harried techno-society, that simple answer may strike a troubled chord. Think again. Richard Tregaskis understood sacrifice in the country’s behalf; he willingly experienced and chronicled its trials.

  A Biography of Richard Tregaskis

  Richard Tregaskis was a journalist and award-winning author best known for Guadalcanal Diary (1943), his bestselling and critically acclaimed chronicle of the US Marine Corps landing in the Solomon Islands during World War II. As a war correspondent, Tregaskis covered nine separate conflicts, reporting from battlefields in Europe, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

  Tregaskis was born on November 28, 1916, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Harvard University, where he studied English and beat out future president John F. Kennedy for a spot on the school’s championship varsity swim team. As an undergraduate, he wrote for several Boston newspapers. After graduating cum laude in 1938, Tregaskis reported for the Boston American before joining the International News Service as their correspondent in Lisbon.

  Before Tregaskis could travel to Portugal, however, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was reassigned to the cover the Pacific Fleet operations, and was onboard the carrier USS Hornet as it escorted the “Doolittle Raiders” to launch the first air raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Tregaskis covered the naval battles at Midway and the Coral Sea and landed with the first boatload of Marines on the Guadalcanal beachhead. One of only two reporters on the tiny Pacific atoll, he stayed for several months while the second stayed just a few days. When he returned to Pearl Harbor, the Navy confined him in a secure room while he completed his dramatic account of the decisive campaign, including Bloody Mount.

  Two days after Guadalcanal Diary was received by Tregaskis’s editors at the International News Service, it was accepted by Random House publisher Bennett Cerf for publication. By the end of the week, it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. An instant commercial and critical success, Guadalcanal Diary was adapted into a film of the same name and has been heralded by the New York Times as “one of the literary events of its time.” It is required reading for all US Marine Corps officer candidates.

  After Guadalcanal, Tregaskis was transferred to the European theater, where he joined the 82nd Airborne Division during the pivotal assault on Salerno, Italy. While serving with paratroopers and US Rangers near Mt. Corno, Sicily, Tregaskis, who stood six feet seven inches in his stocking feet, was seriously wounded by German mortar fire. A chunk of shrapnel tore through his helmet, shattering his skull, exiting the other side of the helmet (the helmet is on permanent loan to the US Marine Corps and on display at the Pentagon). Partially paralyzed, Tregaskis lost the power of speech. He was hospitalized for five months, underwent two operations, and a titanium plate was placed to cover the hole in his skull. He eventually regained speaking ability by reading aloud from a book of poetry for hours daily, and when the feeling in his right hand partially returned, he continued reporting on the Allied invasion. Tregaskis documented the military campaigns in Sicily and Italy and his near-death experience in his 1944 book, Invasion Diary.

  After his recovery, Tregaskis travelled to France to join the American and British forces in Normandy, and followed the American infantry through Northern France, Belgium, and into Germany, which inspired his novel Stronger Than Fear (1945). During the Allied sweep across the Western Front, he became the first correspondent to fly in a fighter plane during an active aerial battle. Although medically unable to join any branch of the service, Tregaskis consistently risked his life to report on clashes other journalists deemed too dangerous, insisting that the most important stories were found on the frontlines.

  Later in the war, Tregaskis joined General MacArthur’s military government staff in Manila as a correspondent. He was aboard the USS Missouri for the signing of the surrender of Japanese forces and flew with MacArthur on the first airlift to Japan. After World War II, Tregaskis reported on the Chinese Civil War, which inspired the novel Last Plane to Shanghai (1961). He made a 45,000-mile trip across Southeast Asia and the Middle East on assignment for True magazine and went to Korea in
1953 to write and direct a documentary film about the United Nations forces fighting there. In 1957, he drove a jeep the length of Vietnam, from Huế to Saigon.

  Tregaskis returned to Vietnam in 1962 to report on the escalating conflict between North and South Vietnamese forces and the increased involvement of US troops. He flew on sixty-eight assault missions with Vietnamese soldiers, documenting his experiences in Vietnam Diary (1965), which won the CBS George Polk Award for Hazardous Reporting.

  Tregaskis was awarded the International News Service Medal of Honor for Heroic Devotion to Duty and was one of the few civilians to receive the Purple Heart. He traveled the world many times over, and wrote about subjects as varied as the efforts of NASA and Air Force scientists, engineers, and pilots to develop and fly the first space craft (X-15 Diary, 1961); John F. Kennedy’s service during World War II (John F. Kennedy and PT-109, 1962); and the great Hawaiian king Kamehameha I (Warrior King, 1973).

  On August 15, 1973, Tregaskis suffered a fatal heart attack while swimming near his home in Hawaii. After a traditional Hawaiian funeral, his ashes were scattered in the waters off Waikiki Beach.