Elbert Bernard Alexander

Elbert Alexander was born on Christmas Day, 1927. He was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, one of seven children raised by Frank and Ethelene Alexander of Fatherland Street. Elbert attended East Junior High – when he cared to; his attendance was “spotty” – and picked up occasional odd jobs as a laborer.

Elbert was just fourteen years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked, yet immediately decided he had to enlist. He managed to convince his mother to sign paperwork stating that he was seventeen – giving his date of birth as 25 December 1924.

“He was very persuasive is all I can say,” recalled his younger sister Lenie. “Neither my mother or my father had any idea what war was about and what he was going to. I think they thought he was going away to camp and that maybe he would get an education out of it.”

Somehow Elbert – at 5’8″ tall, 135 pounds, and looking every bit as young as he really was – managed to “snow” recruiters and joined the Marine Corps on 5 September 1942. He completed boot camp at Parris Island, and was almost immediately assigned to duty with Company E, Second Battalion, 9th Marines.

Private Alexander deployed overseas in January 1943. He spent time in camps in New Zealand and on Guadalcanal, training constantly for combat. On 1 November 1943, he participated in his first combat landing at Cape Torokina, Bougainville.

On 7 November 1943, 1Lt. Thomas Hunter, Jr. led a 22-man reconnaissance patrol out from Easy Company lines towards Piva Village. Their job was to scout Japanese positions around the village itself and explore up the Piva/Numa Numa Trail, the main thoroughfare in the area. As they departed, the Marines little suspected they would soon earn some little-sought fame as a “Lost Patrol.”

The mission reached its initial objective without incident – but as they prepared to return, “movements ahead indicated a Japanese ambush” in the words of a combat correspondent. The Marines spread out, and PFC Alston Langston drew first blood when he out-drew a Japanese soldier.

“A Jap machine gun nest opened fire at three Marines, killing one,” continued the correspondent. “The other two… cut loose with automatic rifles, silencing the nest. One weaponless Marine was killed while trying to cut a path for the patrol. Marines killed the two Japs who fired on him.” The Japanese attempted to encircle the Americans, but Marine marksmen picked them off one by one. Lieutenant Hunter claimed his men accounted for no less than 22 Japanese.

The Marines killed near Piva Village were Private Leonard Bibee and Private Ralph F. Gray. Although Elbert helped to carry the bodies to cover, neither man’s body could be carried to friendly lines. The patrol, split into two halves by the Japanese attack, was hard-pressed to find their way back. Occasional firefights broke out as the withdrawing Marines bumped into other Japanese outposts. Private Don DeLaney was killed at 1300 hours; Sergeant Jack D. Burton and PFC Leuin L. David, Jr., were shot in a skirmish at 1700; PFC Edwin A. Pesek died of bullet wounds at 1715. All bodies were left where they fell.

Lieutenant Hunter brought his survivors to safety on 8 November. Four other Marines, led by Sgt. Howard Meyers, soon after. Two men – Private Elbert Alexander and Private James Pitts – did not return, and were never seen again. They had disappeared into the jungle, and their exact fates were never known.

Over the following weeks, the bodies of Burton, David, DeLaney, Pesek, and Petersen were found along the Piva Trail. Burton and Petersen were brought back to the Bougainville cemetery, while the other three received temporary field burials along the trail. When the area was fully secured in early 1944, Graves Registration personnel retrieved David, DeLaney, and Pesek.

The remains of Bibee, Gray, Alexander, and Pitts were never positively identified. Alexander and Pitts were both declared dead on 8 November 1944.

“When we moved out I noticed [Elbert] joined the column, but left it almost immediately and crossed the trail in the direction of the enemy, evidently seeking out a sniper. The column soon moved out and I lost sight of Alexander in the dense foliage.”
– PFC Marion E. Powell, quoted in Leon Alligood, “Ceremony at last honors the boy who went to war,” The Tennessean (11 June 2005), B1-B2.

CENOTAPHS
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee