U.S. Veterans Revisit Guadalcanal on Eve of Battle’s Anniversary

GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands —  A shipload of veterans led by former U.S. Marines hit Red Beach again Thursday, 50 years after they stormed ashore to start World War II’s legendary Battle of Guadalcanal.

Older, slower and wearing a different uniform--floral shirts, baseball caps, shorts and sneakers--they landed from the cruise ship Ocean Pearl on the anniversary eve of the battle.

Many, accompanied by their wives, went directly to Red Beach, where the saga began. They then went on to other famous battle sites: Bloody Ridge, Henderson Field and Edson’s Ridge.

Some found it hard to get their bearings.

“I am so surprised at the change. I don’t recognize anything,” said John Trebich, 69, of Cleveland.

Others, like Bill Cristea of Erie, Pa., vividly remember every detail of Aug. 7, 1942.

“I might look like I am having a good time, but inside I am crying,” he said, standing on the beach with a can of beer in hand.

“This is a place that tested men’s souls,” said Cristea, who was a corporal when he became one of the first Marines to set foot on the 90-mile-long island.

Guadalcanal was the first U.S. offensive in the Pacific Theater. It set the stage for the island-hopping campaign that led ever closer to Japan, and it burnished the Marines’ reputation for valor under extraordinary hardship.

It cost the United States dearly--1,769 men on the ground, 4,911 men at sea and 420 in the air. But Japan lost more than 30,000 men.

Ralph Dorsey, 75, who served on an ammunition ship at Guadalcanal, said he never expected to return. Dorsey, from Carson City, Nev., was a big hit. He wore the same U.S. Coast Guard uniform he wore 50 years ago.

“It still fits beautifully,” the retired mobile-home manufacturer said proudly.

Allan Rothenberg, 74, from Virginia Beach, Va., won a Navy Cross as an aviator at Guadalcanal. He has been back four times and is leading a group of 137 veterans.

Rothenberg, accompanied by his wife, Doris, said his first return in 1981 was devastating. “I could not stop crying,” the former stockbroker said.

Standing in the hot tropical sun Thursday at a small white memorial marker at Edson’s Ridge, the site of one of the campaign’s fiercest battles, had a somber effect on the veterans.

“Some just stand and look,” Rothenberg said. “One gentleman this morning just sat and stared into space like he was frozen.”

Rothenberg is a member of the Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands War Memorial Foundation, which built an imposing red granite monument to the dead on Skyline Ridge. It will be formally dedicated today with hymns, honor guards and prayers.

During construction, workers uncovered the remains of a U.S. soldier who has not been identified.