Evening star., 1943-09-14

not had a final blessing. So he |
called them all together and gave |
them "absolution for the duration" |
After that they were like q pack
Of Wildcats" he said.
100 Felled by Heat.
The battalion spent the second
night in the jungle after having
almost 100 heat prostrations on the |
trail that day. All of the men made
1t, however, and prostrations were
few thereafter.
At dusk of the third day, a large
number Of Jap snipers opened up
on the middle Of the column in q
narrow one-way jungle. trail You
couldn't see them camoufiaged and
tied up In trees. The marines raked
the trees with machine guns and
Browning automatic rifles and oc-
casionally a sniper would fall to the
ground. All the time, the doctor
and corpsmen ran about through
the fire administering first aid. No
marine was killed, and the firine
stopped after an hour. After that,
patrols were daily.
A village about IL miles above the
airfield, Kukunbona, held by 5000
Japs, was the objective Of Comdr.
Schuster's patrol on September "A.
After walking all day through dense
jungles over rugged terrain, the men
were set upon by snipers who used
machine guns and rifles. Twelve
marines dropped dead in their
tracks. Thirty were badly wounded.
Fire was 50 heavy the doctor
crawled back and forth on his stom-
ach to the wounded. When he could.
he dragged the men out Of the line
Of fire, tied of their arteries and
packed their chests to stop the
bleeding. The marines brought up
= mortar and blasted the Japs out.
That pitch black night the
wounded were carried to q ridge two
miles back on improvised stretcher
blankets. The worst wounded were
given the IL bottles of precious
blood plasma, with the doctor using
only the momentary flash Of light |
to find their veins. No complaint |
was heard then or on the tedious |
aH-day trip back to the airfield.
The next day the doctor accom-.
panied patrol headed by Mai O.
L. Rogers, former Washington post
once employe, on one Of the most |
hazardous and costly missions Of the |
Guadalcanal campaign. Their pa
troll was ordered to get in landing |
boats and attack Kunkunbona from
the rear.
The Japs let the patrol land, saw
their boats 60 away, and then am
pushed them with machine gun fire |
from three sides. and partially cut
on retreat to the beach q quarter |
OF a mile back. A half hour after
the landing, with Jap fire seemingly |
coming from all sides, Comdr.
schuster saw Maj. Rogers leave his |
side and get killed by a mortar shell |
almost second later.
Hand-to- Hand Combat.
Crawling to the spot, the doctor
had trouble persuading a captain,
who had wound in his chest and |
his arm shattered, to accept treat
ment. The captain took sulfanila-
mide treatment and splint only
dAUCA UAAC uoSVu Whll1SO 1l4IH 11C |
would never get out otherwise.
Meanwhile, the marines were bay
oneting Japs in one-two order In
furious hand-to-hand combat, all
the time retreating to the beach.
Comdr. Schuster crawled about
treating as many men as he could.
AS the battalion started running to-
ward the beach, the doctor ran to
treat man badly hit in the thigh.
Then he ran to dying man. AS he
started towards the beach again. q
shell hit him in the elbow and spun
him around. Falling to his knees,
he grabbed for bandage with his
good arm from the pack on his back.
Capt Regan Fuller, Washington,
came up and helped him tie the |
bandage and they ran on to the
beach.
One marine had pulled of his
clothes and swan to q destroyer a
quarter Of q mile away to summon
the landing boats back. A sergeant
had ordered his men down to the
beach and stood manning machine
gun on ridge above, where he was
killed A total OF 146 men were killed,
wounded and missing.
Boat Sticks on Reef.
The overloaded landing boat into
which the doctor climbed stuck on a
coral reef while a Jap machine gun
spattered bullets until 1t was silenced
by the boats gun. Half Of the men
Jumped out and the boat was showed
OIL.
Two days later DR.. Schuster, with
other wounded, was taken aboard
new cargo transport ship bound for
New Zealand But at midnight in
a rough and choppy sea they were
torpedoed. All of the wounded were
loaded into ifeboats, which they
could not row, and pulled by small
gig over the turbulent waters for
three hours before they sighted a
rescue destroyer. A ladder was
lowered and the weak men, many Of |
them Ill, had to catch hold of the
ladder and climb aboard the de-
stroyer.
The men were brought back to
this country, where Comdr. schuster
Is still trying to trace two frequent |
rumors on Guadalcanal that sound
like Jap propaganda. One was that |
President Roosevelt had broadcast |
that all the men would be home for |
I IL u