Denzil Ray Caltrider
Platoon Sergeant Denzil R. Caltrider 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 Regular
Service Number 250032
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
February 3, 1917
at Elizabeth, WV
Parents
Earl C. Caltrider
Martha (Haught) Caltrider
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Details unknown
Service Life
Entered Service
September 23, 1935
at Baltimore, MD
Home Of Record
308 West Washington Street
Greenboro, NC
Next Of Kin
Wife, Mrs. Ruth J. Caltrider
Military Specialty
Combat Intelligence
Section NCO
Primary Unit
HQ, 5th Marines
R-2 Section
Campaigns Served
Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
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Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Platoon Sergeant Denzil Caltrider 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. Caltrider was in charge of guarding the prisoner, Warrant Officer Sakado, and led the Japanese sailor to the boats by a rope around his neck.
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.
Denzil Caltrider shot the prisoner, then joined his buddies on the firing line. He managed to survive through the night, and as dawn rose he found only three other Marines still able to move. Without cover of darkness, the Marines needed to reach the safety of the treeline. Platoon Sergeant Frank Few related the conclusion of the patrol.
Ringer and Caltrider fell moments later, and Few barely managed to escape with his life.
Caltrider 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.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of wife, Mrs. Ruth Jordan Caltrider.
Denzil’s parents resided at 709 Pleasant Avenue, Vienna, WV.
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.
Denzel’s younger brother Charles George Caltrider enlisted US Navy shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was deployed to the Philippines.
Many of us have read about the ill-fated foray led by Goettge but this is the first reading where a Marine was brought to life. This fateful journey was a critical scene in the 1943 B&W classic, “Guadalcanal Diary”.
Denzel R. Caltrider was my father’s ( Charles G. Caltrider ) oldest brother. If any of his remains are found and identified please contact me at my e-mail address.
Denzil was my mother Letha’s brother. When my brother Rick was stationed in the Philippines, he went to the memorial and did a pencil rubbing of our Uncle Denzil’s name on the memorial and gave it to my mother.