Frank Goettge Frank Bryan Goettge ( 30 December 1895 - 12 August 1942 ) was a United States Marine Corps intelligence officer in World War II . He led the ill - fated Goettge Patrol in the early days of the Guadalcanal campaign , and was killed during that operation . Biography . Frank Goettge was born in Canton , Ohio . on December 30 , 1895 . He enlisted in the Marine Corps at the beginning of World War I in May 1917 , after spending one year at Ohio University . Goettge was commissioned as First Lieutenant in 1918 . During World War I , Goettge served with the 5th Marines in the Meuse - Argonne Offensive , and later served in occupation duty at Segendorf , Germany . After the war , Goettge served in a number of billets , including the 1st Provisional Brigade in Haiti , and at Headquarters of the Pacific Department , in San Francisco and Hawaii . In 1924 , Goettge went to Quantico and was later sent to the Marine Detachment in Peking , China . In June 1933 , Goettge served aboard the battleship , and then was Commanding Officer of the Marine detachment at Annapolis , Maryland . In June 1941 , Goettge was assigned to the 1st Marine Division , and remained in that unit as division intelligence officer , until his death the following year . Goettge Patrol . The Marines landed on Guadalcanal on August 7 , 1942 , and within several days rounded up a number of Japanese Navy laborers , who had been assigned to construct the airfield at Lunga Point . Most were malnourished and sick from tropical illnesses . A Japanese warrant officer was among the prisoners and , after being plied with alcohol , told the Marines that there were a number of Japanese west of the Matanikau River . These soldiers were reportedly sick , demoralized , and willing to surrender . At about the same time , Marines near the Matanikau perimeter reported seeing a white flag flying from a tree . It is possible that this was actually a Japanese flag with the Hinomaru disc insignia obscured . These reports , as well as several other similar accounts were given to Goettge . He thought that this might be an opportunity to secure much of the island without significant fighting and he decided to act quickly . He organized a 25 man patrol to land just west of the Matanikau estuary . The plan was to follow the Matanikau upstream , bivouac for a night , then head east back to the Lunga perimeter . The patrol consisted of Goettge ; Japanese translator Lt . Ralph Corry ; regimental surgeon , Lt . Cmdr . Malcom Pratt ; and a handful of scouts and infantry . Just before the patrol departed on the evening of August 12 , Goettge was informed by Colonel Whaling , the 5th Marine Regiment ' s executive officer , that the Japanese were strongly defending the area between Point Cruz and the mouth of the Matanikau . Whaling suggested a landing west of Point Cruz . The Goettge Patrol left at dusk on a tank lighter . However , a flare was seen to the east and the lighter returned to the perimeter , thinking it was a signal to return . The patrol then left for a second time around 9 : 00 p . m . Despite Whaling ' s warning , the boat headed for an area just to the west of the Matanikau river mouth . Before the patrol reached the beach , the lighter ran aground on a sandbar . The coxswain gunned the motor to free the vessel , and the Marines disembarked on the beach around 10 : 00 p . m . Unbeknownst to Goettge , the Japanese had heard the sound of the stuck landing craft , and began organizing troops on a coral plateau about 200 yards inland from the Marines . Goettge ordered a defensive perimeter established , then took two men , Captain Ringer and First Sergeant Custer , with him to scout the jungle . Not long after leaving the beach , the Japanese opened fire and Goettge was killed with a shot to the head . Ringer and Custer managed to make it back to the perimeter . Platoon Sergeant Frank Lowell Few and two Marines went back into the jungle to confirm that Goettge was indeed dead . They found his body and took his watch and insignia , so the Japanese would not be able to identify him as an officer . Over the next nine hours , the patrol lay pinned on the beach . The Japanese maintained fire on the American perimeter , but the Marines were unable to locate the Japanese in the dark jungle . About 30 minutes after landing , Sergeant Arndt was tasked to head out into the ocean and try to swim back to the Lunga perimeter , over five miles to the east . Arndt reached American lines around 5 : 00 a . m . , but it was too late to affect the fate of the Goettge Patrol . During the course of the night , the Japanese picked the Marines off , one by one . The Japanese would occasionally launch a flare to illuminate the beachhead perimeter . However , the Marines were unable to discern the Japanese positions in the moonless night . After some time , Captain Ringer ordered another Marine , Corporal Spaulding , to make a second attempt to get back to American lines . Like Arndt , Spaulding ran off the beach into the ocean , and then started on the grueling swim to safety . He reached American lines around 7 : 30 a . m . The Japanese use of white flags in order to make a surprise attack on the American Marines violated the Hague Convention of 1907 which banned the treacherous killing of enemy soldiers and the improper use of white flags . By dawn , only four members of the patrol were still alive . Captain Ringer decided they stood a better chance in the jungle . As the Marines made their dash off the beach , the Japanese opened fire , cutting down the remaining survivors except for Platoon Sergeant Frank Few . Few managed to reach the trees . He saw a Japanese soldier firing into the corpses of the Marines and decided it would be certain death to remain . Few drew his pistol , killed the Japanese , then made a dash into the sea . Few looked back and saw Japanese troops swarming the beach , mutilating the bodies of the dead Marines . Few also managed to make it back to friendly lines by swimming approximately four miles through shark - infested waters . Few was the last survivor of the Goettge Patrol . A slightly fictionalized version of the incident is in the movie " Guadalcanal Diary " . In the film , the patrol is led by a " Captain Cross " and there is only one survivor . According to a Marine Corps monograph previous to August 21 , a patrol found Pratt ' s dispatch case and a cloth with Goettge ' s name on it ; the monograph also claimed no identifiable remains were found . See Note # 16 at However on August 18 , a Marine patrol from 3rd Battalion , 5th Marines , made a combat patrol in the same area that the Goettge Patrol was annihilated . They reported seeing remains , but Goettge ' s body was never found . There are at least four eyewitness reports of finding the remains of the patrol - one from Company " K " / 3 / 5 ; one from " I " / 3 / 5 ; and three from Company " L " / 3 / 5 & &