James Orland Pitts

James Pitts was born in Beaumont, Texas, on 5 June 1925 – the third and youngest child of Oma and James Norvell Pitts. “Orland” grew up around automobiles as his father, Jim, was a professional mechanic. The elder Pitts worked his way up from a Ford repair shop to managing a Sinclair service station, and eventually moved the family to Nacogdoches where he worked as a Chevrolet salesman.

Orland was probably a student at Nacogdoches High School when Pearl Harbor was attacked. In January 1942, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, he learned that his uncle Thomas “Marvin” Pitts had been killed in action in the Philippines. Marvin was one of the first men from Nacogdoches to lose his life in the war.

A desire to get even might have motivated James to join the Marine Corps. He enlisted at Dallas on 29 July 1942, age seventeen and a half, and was soon on his way to boot camp in San Diego. After his initial training and a few weeks of duty with the depot’s Casual Company, Private Pitts was assigned to duty with Company E, Second Battalion, 9th Marines.

Pitts 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. Neither man’s body could be carried to friendly lines as 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.

“Private Gray was serving in a patrol against the enemy in the Piva Village area, Bougainville, where he was ambushed by two enemy forces who were concealed on both sides of a trail which he was following. He was observed by members of his patrol to receive direct fire from enemy rifles and machine guns at a distance of approximately ten yards. Due to the intense fire his body was not recovered.”
– Quartermaster Form 371, Gray Individual Deceased Personnel File

CENOTAPHS
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
A private memorial marker stands in Harmony Cemetery, Nacogdoches, Texas.