American Valor Quarterly Issue 10 - Summer 2013 | Page 29

Let’s Not Forget Peleliu
& The Pacific Theater
By R.V. Burgin
R.V. Burgin joined the United States
Marine Corps on November 13, 1942,
soon becoming a mortar man in K
Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.
He fought in the Pacific War at Cape
Gloucester, then alongside his friend
Eugene Sledge at Peleliu and
Okinawa. He was awarded a Bronze
Star for actions in the Battle of
Okinawa, and was recently portrayed
in HBO’s miniseries The Pacific. Mr.
Burgin appeared on a panel devoted
to the Pacific War at the American
Veterans Center & World War II
Veterans Committee’s 15 th Annual
Conference.
I was a sergeant in the United States
Marine Corps, K Company 3rd
Battalion, 5th Regiment, First Marine
Division and I fought on New Britain,
Peleliu, and Okinawa.
Of all the things that have happened
to me, my experience in the Pacific
with the 1st Marine Division is the
most significant.
I say this because the Pacific didn’t
get much press when the war was
going on. A few of the islands did,
but not many. Take, for instance,
Peleliu. We had over 8,000 casualties
on Peleliu, yet nobody ever heard
about it. I get the word out as much
as I can that there was a battle on
Peleliu and that there was a war going
on in the Pacific as well as in the
European theater. We didn’t get all
that much press.

Nonetheless, if I
had a choice I would
rather have gone to
the Pacific than to
Europe. Why?
Because I don’t like Smoke rises from American gunboats bombarding the shore as
the first landing crafts approach Peleliu, September 15, 1944.
cold weather. I’ll
take the mud and the mosquitoes and
all that kind of stuff over the cold were zeroed in on us. It took awhile
weather. I just do not like cold and we took a lot of casualties there.
And then the other bad fight was on
weather.
Walt Ridge. That really wasn’t the
But wherever you are, war is hell. I name of it at that time but I can never
fought on New Britain Peleliu and remember the name of that ridge. It
Okinawa. New Britain was jungle was named Walt Ridge after Colonel
warfare. We were there in the Walt shortly thereafter. We captured
monsoon season and it rained and it that ridge one afternoon. It took a
rained and then it rained some more while to take it, but we finally got our
and my two little toenails rotted way to the crest of the ridge and we
completely off, they stayed wet so dug in. We stayed, we didn’t back up.
long. It seemed to me we wore the That night, starting about one o’clock
same clothes forever; it was quite or so there was a bonsai charge and
some time before we got a change of then we had five bonsai charges
clothes. The only time we would have between then and daylight and I can
to rinse them out, and that’s really assure you no one got a wink of sleep
what we did, just rinse them out that night. I don’t know how many
because we didn’t have soap or a Japanese we killed on our front lines,
brush, was when we crossed a stream, but I know one of them started into
if we had time. Or we’d come down my foxhole and I stuck the bayonet
to the beach. We’d get out in the ocean right through his chest and heaved
and wash them and put them right him over my head. I had an M-1 rifle
back on. A lot of times, you would and emptied I really don’t know how
many shots into him, but I can assure

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Spring 2013 - 29

U.S. Navy Photo

I’m not sure why this was the case,
but I guess that for the reporters and
the public it was just more interesting

discover the Japanese only when you
were in an ambush. That’s the first
time you knew they were anywhere.
From day one, we would push
forward and we had two really sort
and intriguing to be in Europe than of bad fights. One was on Suicide
being out in the jungles, island- Creek. It was very rough. We had to
hopping the mosquito-infested cross the creek to get to them and they
islands with the land
crabs and all that.
I’m not sure why the
reporters never
congregated in our
area, but I have my
suspicions.