Blaine Gillespie Walter, Jr.
PFC Blaine G. Walter, Jr. served with the regimental intelligence (R-2) section of the 5th Marines.
He was reported missing in action from the “Goettge Patrol” at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 13 August 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 368951
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
September 15, 1916
at Sunbury, PA
Parents
Blaine G. Walter, Sr.
Nellie (Vanetta) Walter
Education
Millersburg High School (1936)
Eckels School of Embalming
Franklin & Marshall College (ex-1944)
Occupation & Employer
Standard Oil Company
Service Life
Entered Service
January 27, 1942
at Philadelphia, PA
Home Of Record
710 Union Street
Millersburg, PA
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Nellie H. V. Walter
Military Specialty
Combat Intelligence
Primary Unit
HQ, 5th Marines
R-2 Section
Campaigns Served
Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
Walter joined the 5th Marines from 1MarDiv D-2 section on 20 July 1942.
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
PFC Blaine Walter served with the regimental intelligence (R-2) section of the 5th Marines during the campaign for the Solomon Islands.
On the afternoon of 12 August 1942, Colonel Frank B. Goettge – the 1st Marine Division intelligence officer (D-2) – ordered a reconnaissance patrol of an area west of Point Cruz. Goettge was led to believe that the local Japanese garrison was starving and wanted to surrender; he hoped to capture prisoners and simultaneously scout and map the area beyond the Marine perimeter. To accomplish this mission, the colonel gathered two dozen trained specialists and placed himself in command.
The patrol was a disaster from the outset. After departing Kukum in total darkness, the Marines landed in the wrong place – and after grounding their boat on a sandbar, came ashore just west of the Matanikau River. A determined Japanese guard force pinned the patrol on the beach near Horahi Village, and picked off the Marines one by one. Only three managed to escape to the safety of American lines.
PFC Walter was reported as missing in action when the patrol failed to return to safety. Officially, nothing more was ever learned of Goettge’s men, and all were eventually declared dead as of 14 August 1943.
Burial Information or Disposition
The fate of the Goettge Patrol was known only too well to the Marines on Guadalcanal – especially members of the 5th Marines, who made numerous patrols and fought a battle over the same area. Dismembered body parts were seen strewn about the riverbanks, and a burial trench was later found near Horahi itself. However, due to the conditions of battle, none of the remains could be recovered – and later campaigning and construction eventually obliterated all physical traces of the Goettge Patrol.
[A patrol from K/3/5th Marines] found Goettge’s men on the east bank of the river.
The smell came first, “a scent that those of us who were there can recall in an instant,” said Sergeant Thurman Miller. “What lay beneath the foliage was no longer human.… Sticking out of the sand was a boot, containing the foot of its owner. I scraped in the sand and uncovered another legging with the leg still in it.”
“The first thing I saw was the severed head of a Marine,” recalled Sergeant Jim McEnery. “I almost let out a yell because the head was moving back and forth in the water and looked like it was alive. Then I realized it was just bobbing in the small waves lapping at the shore. They would wash it up onto the sand a few inches, then it would float back out again when the waves receded.” Their shocked eyes beheld parts strewn in every direction as they slowly worked across the sandspit. The ragged stump of a leg sporting a neatly laced boondocker. A headless, armless torso still clad in a first sergeant’s shirt. Less identifiable pieces floated in the water or lay fly-covered and rotting in the sand. Some men began to retch, but most stood stock still in horrified silence. “No one spoke,” recalled Miller. “Not a word. Some things are better left unsaid.”
The Goettge Patrol has been the object of multiple expeditions and digs over the decades, but so far none have been successful.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Nellie H. V. Walker.
Location Of Loss
The Goettge Patrol was ambushed near the western bank of the Matanikau.
Gallery
Goettge Patrol Casualties
Missing in action 12-13 August 1942.
Leaving Mac Behind: The Lost Marines of Guadalcanal
Frank Few lay in his foxhole, wishing the daylight away. Warm seawater swirled into his foxhole, turning pinkish as it mingled with the blood seeping from his chest and arm. Sand was everywhere—stuck to the Japanese blood on his clothes, in his eyes, in the Reising gun he borrowed from Monk and which would only fire single shots. Few counted out his remaining rounds and stuffed them into his mouth to keep the sand and salt water away. Occasionally, a bullet snapped
overhead, as if he needed a reminder to keep his head down.
Trapped in a flooding foxhole, wounded, almost out of ammunition, with the sun coming up. It could not get much worse: “The hell with this for a lark,” he thought.
Read more about the Goettge Patrol in "Leaving Mac Behind."
Click the cover for details.
Since Blaine Gillespie Walter, Jr. was born 15 September 1916 in Sunbury, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and he died 13 August 1942 along the Matanikau River in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, he would have been 25 years, 10 months, and 29 days old when he died, not 17 years old as suggested in this article.
Thank you for the correction, Eileen! Looks like I made a typo from Pvt Robert Wood Lovelace (who was 17 years, 7 months old when he died on Guadalcanal). I’m sorry for the mistake, and have made the corrections.
Thank you for correcting the record, but also for opening up the greater detail of what happened to him and those that were massacred with him. His brother and sisters were close friends and associates of my husband’s family, but they never shared this detail with us, even if they knew it themselves. You gave me several resources to research this further. I have found several areas that can be used to teach our youth about lessons that will help them survive and thrive in the dangerous world we have today. As an educator, I feel it is important for youth to discover the story as well as the statistics of those they are directly connected to as family or community members. This is the most important thing we can do to honor the ultimate sacrifice of these heroes and perpetuate these true principles. Thank you for your dedication to this cause.
Cheers for the kind words, Eileen. You’re spot on about the need to educate not just future generations, but present ones as well. In some cases, only a little extra legwork is needed to locate burial or crash sites, or to match the graves of unknowns with names on the list of the missing. This is not to say it’s a simple task by any means, but certainly one that can be done – and we owe those missing at least our best attempts to bring them back. For the WW2 generation, time becomes an issue as family members or comrades who knew the missing personally grow older. Once they’re gone, the extra connection is lost.
Sadly, for those on Col. Goettge’s patrol, what little hope there was of finding remains grows ever dimmer. There have been many attempts to locate a reported burial trench in the area over the years, but more recent stories from eyewitnesses indicate that instead of being buried, the bodies were scattered around the area. Patrols that found remains were under orders – just whose remains unclear – not to touch or bury them, and eventually they were lost. Imagine the frustration and anger of those men, some of whom were seeing the remains of Marines they knew, unable to help and then to know for decades the dead were unrecovered.
It is stories like these that will keep the memories of the Greatest Generation alive for generations to come, and for your work educating those future generations, I applaud you. If I can be of any further help, please email me at webmaster@ablecompany24.com and I’ll be glad to do what I can.