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U.S. Marine Pfc. Alvin C. Dunlap, 5th Marine Division, 27th Marine Regiment, who spotted a Japanese machine gun nest during the Battle of Iwo Jima (codename: Operation Detachment) finds its location on a map so they can send the information to artillery or mortars to wipe out the position. Iwo Jima, February 1945. Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands, Japan. February 1945.
My Dad PSgt Tommy Thompson was one of 2 platoon sargents in the 5th Amphibious Tractor Battalion. He was either in the 3rd or 4th waive close to Mt. Suribachi. He died during the 20th anniversary of the battle due to heart damage from a wound infection. Probably a streptococcal infection. I was 13 when he passed. My uncle, who was on one of the aircraft carriers during the battle, confirmed a few things for me; the wound was a mild flesh wound, from a Jap machine gun, on the bottom of his foot. The infection hospitalized him several days later. Strep infections if not tended to can lead to rheumatic fever and for some heart damage. The division mascot "Roscoe" a 30+ pound African lion cub was part of my Dad's winnings off a San Diego zoo keeper. He snuck Roscoe on his ship in his amtrack. I'll try to post a few pictures later today need to get some sleep. It says I can't share photos. This my 1st post to this forum.
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By Carolyn Lucas-Zenk
West Hawaii Today
clucas-zenk@westhawaiitoday.com
Roscoe was a great howler — growling madly to the discomfort of some and happily joining in whenever he could.
Big and friendly, weighing 300 to 350 pounds, he was an African lion and mascot for 5th Marine Division, 28th Regiment, 1st Battalion Company C.
It was an unusual friendship during World War II at Camp Tarawa, located on Parker Ranch land near Waimea. Though brief, it was a plus and as simple as seeking comfort or companionship from another. If anything, it likely boosted the morale for the Marines, who were still boys at the time and preparing for overseas deployment at 17 to 20 years old, said Jim Browne, of the Camp Tarawa Detachment No. 1255.
Of the approximately 55,000 men who trained from 1943 to 1945 at Camp Tarawa, 5,145 were killed in action or died of their wounds. More than 18,000 were wounded in action against Japanese armed forces in the Saipan-Tinian and Iwo Jima campaigns, he said.
Browne spends a lot of his time preserving the history of World War II — specifically the role Camp Tarawa played. One of the many ways Browne and his fellow members of the Marine Corps League Camp Tarawa Detachment No. 1255 have kept the camp’s history alive and well for future generations is through a docent program in conjunction with the National Park Service and a monthly newsletter. For years, they have led regular presentations and “Boots on the Ground” tours.
“While working on my short history of Camp Tarawa, I stumbled on what I feel is a real human, or animal, interest story,” he said. “When I first heard about Roscoe, I was intrigued by the story of just how an African lion wound up as a living mascot for a Marine regiment, how they acquired him, and how they got him aboard a ship and here to Camp Tarawa on the Big Island.”
Thanks to oral history projects and interviews done in 1995 and 1996 by Alice Clark, of the Pacific War Memorial Association, and Maile Melrose, of Waimea Main Streets, Browne learned Roscoe wasn’t a tall tale, “but a fascinating, colorful bit of Marine Corps history.” Clark and Melrose interviewed retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, who died last year, Browne said.
According to Haynes, the 28th Regiment, 1st Battalion Company C purchased Roscoe, then “a little bitty cub” and “as cute as he could be” for $25 from a Los Angeles zoo, most likely Griffith Park. They brought him to their initial training camp at Camp Pendleton in California. How they transported a lion to the camp no one knows for sure, but Browne does know it wasn’t by taxi or train.
Like any story, there’s always another side. Supposedly, a regiment member bought the cub as a gift for his son, and when his wife shot that idea down, Roscoe came to Camp Pendleton, said Browne, who guessed Roscoe was born in the fall of 1943.
“When we were ordered overseas we, much to their dismay, conned the Navy into letting us bring Roscoe to Hawaii and we settled him in at Camp Tarawa here in Waimea,” Haynes said. “He was still a fairly small cub, but when we went to Iwo (Jima), the Navy wouldn’t let us take him aboard ship, which was probably good luck for him.”
A more likely situation, Browne said, was the regiment smuggled Roscoe aboard ship by putting him in a crate and covering it. When the ship arrived in Honolulu, Roscoe was discovered. The lion spent a week in quarantine before being placed on a plane to Camp Tarawa and arrived in the late summer of 1944.
In the early 1940s, Waimea had a population of fewer than 400 residents and many worked for Parker Ranch. But all that changed as more than 25,000 military personnel, mostly Marines, would soon call it “home.” By the time the war was over, more than 50,000 Marines, Navy corpsmen and Army Seabees passed through the 137,000-acre Camp Tarawa. Richard Smart, Parker Ranch’s then sole owner, leased the land to the government for $1 a year.
While at the camp, Roscoe was known for his musical and showboating ways.
“He could out-howl the band,” Haynes said. “Then we would have these little parades over the athletic field of about 400 to 500 men. Roscoe would drape himself over the hood of a jeep and go over to the parade ground, and the band would play and he would howl, or growl madly, much to the discomfort of the bandleader, Bob Crosby. It was like being in darkest Africa to hear him let fly.”
When the Marines went to the beaches of Iwo Jima, Roscoe stayed at the camp, eating meat from Parker Ranch and scraps from the mess hall.
“He was a big, friendly guy, but we wouldn’t let the average Marine go near him, only the three or four Marines who bought him and brought him to Camp Pendleton and really knew him,” Haynes said. “One or two of them had been wounded at Iwo (Jima) and returned home, but there were a couple of them left when we came back and he was very friendly to them. They would go and feed him, and he would growl a little bit that he was happy they were there.”
Upon return, Haynes expressed his surprise to seeing Roscoe’s drastic size and how much he ate. Still, his love of howling remained, as evidence of his duets with an adjutant learning to play the bagpipes.
“(The adjutant) was an insomniac and would play bagpipes until two or three in the morning, and of course, Roscoe would join right in,” he said. “So we moved both of them far enough away where they could enjoy one another’s music and let the rest of us get some sleep.”
At least four or five months later, Haynes said Roscoe “become quite ill” and “distemper got a hold of him.” Veterinarians put him to sleep and he was buried late summer of 1945 near the camp.
The exact location is unknown and Parker Ranch has no record of Roscoe, Browne said. By sharing this story, the Marine Corps League Camp Tarawa Detachment No. 1255 is hoping someone knows. The group wants to place a memorial plaque at the site in the lion’s honor.
Anyone with information about Roscoe’s gravesite or with stories about Camp Tarawa should call Browne at 883-0069 or Kathy Painton at 880-9880. For more information about the detachment, visit camptarawamcl.com.
WJ, welcome to milsurps.com. Great to have you here with us. Enjoy all there is and all the great members. They are all wonderful folks, willing to lend a hand regardless the task. :thup:
Is that a cigarette behind that young boy's ear??? Also, top photo not coming through.
My uncle told me the entire fleet new about the lion but the guys on my Dad's ship were not too happy about having such a large cub in the tight confines. They were eager to unload it at the zoo in Hawaii. Thanks for posting those pictures. Some of ours were lost during a move when I was 4. I only have one left on the beach at Pendleton. I'm trying to do everything by cell phone and apparently that presents problems for posting photos.
Thinking back and reviewing the old photos it seems the only ones left from the war period are those mailed to my Mom and the ones at Quantico. He was assigned to the fire department and learning Japanese in school. I have pictures of him with the 2nd model Reising and with 2 crossed garands and an 81mm morter shell. On the back of the picture with the garlands the note to my Mom says just a few things for the Japs. I still have the nickel plated morter shell turned into a lamp. When he was in the hospital after Iwo his barracks caught fire, they saved his bed but not his foot locker. I was told it had 2 very nice samurai swords one worth more than $2000 in 1945. I remember his regretting that years later.
I went to school 1961-65 (HPA) in Kamuela. We knew about the "army base" there but not until now did I realize it was the Marine's Camp Tarawa. We would occasional find "army junk" and almost got kick out of school for bring back a hand grenade.:yikes:
Thank you for this eye opening information. I'll be going "home" this summer and will definitely revisit Waimea Kamuela and Camp Tarawa.
Pretty funny... Like the kid in our east coast that took a 1928 Thompson to school for show and tell...Quote:
Originally Posted by daboone
We'll my uncle was pretty sure about my Dad winning the lion in a poker game. In The Spearhead THE WORLD WAR II HISTORY OF THE 5th Marine Division by Howard M. Conner, Infantry Journal Press, 1950 it says that Roscoe was originally a resident of the Los Angeles Zoo and that he was brought by air to Camp Tarawa after quarantine on Oahu. My Mom told me to stop treating my Dad like a hero and don' t believe all his tall tales. She was pretty devastated by his death as we all were. I was close to 45 when I asked my uncle about it. I think we all might experience some "tall tales". I slipped and told a neighbors son something about an experience I had in Antarctica. He's 30 now and couldn't believe that had been there; I had to find a picture of me at the S. Pole to convince him. I've known him since he was 8.
My Dad never talked about the war except privately with others that had seen action (I was 9 I shouldn't have ease dropped ). If any started to talk with us kids around he would say those that brag about war are either damn fools or damn liars.
- Bill Thompson