Milam Irion Rulfs
PFC Milam I. Rulfs served with Company F, Second Battalion, 19th Marines in the Bougainville campaign.
He was killed in action during the Cape Torokina landings on 1 November 1943, when Japanese gunfire hit his landing boat.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 489162
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
History
Milam was born in San Augustine, Texas, on 20 July 1922. He was the youngest of Dr. Carl and Anna Rulfs’ seven children, and one of five who lived to adulthood.
Milam spent almost his entire life in San Augustine, and graduated from the local high school in 1940. At the time of his enlistment, he was working in construction with a relative, Louis W. Rulfs.
Rulfs enlisted in the Marine Corps at San Antonio on 5 November 1942, and completed his boot training at San Diego. His construction work experience led to his assignment to an pioneer unit – Company F, Second Battalion, 19th Marines, part of the 3rd Marine Division.
Rulfs trained with the 19th Marines in California and overseas, earning a promotion to Private First Class while stationed on Guadalcanal in the late summer of 1943. At the end of October, Rulfs and his company boarded the USS President Adams for transit to a new beachhead at Cape Torokina on the island of Bougainville.
On the morning of 1 November 1943, PFC Rulfs went over the side of the President Adams and into a Higgins boat that would take him to shore. Members of the 19th Marines were divided between the assault platoons of the 3rd Marines, and Rulfs’ squad likely embarked with riflemen from an unfamiliar unit.
The Japanese defenders targeted the slow-moving landing craft as they drew closer to shore, scoring numerous hits and causing several casualties. At least two of the Adams boats in the first wave were hit by high-trajectory mortar fire. Boat #3 was hit near the coxswain’s station, decapitating a crewman and blasting a machine gun into the air. Boat #29 was holed in the side; she sank near the beach, and her wounded crew were taken off in other boats.
PFC Rulfs was likely aboard one of these boats; his Casualty Card notes that the “Higgins boat on which he was coming ashore was hit by mortar shell during initial landing on Bougainville.” He was not seen ashore, and was reported as missing in action.
Rulfs was ultimately declared dead on 2 November 1944.
Decorations
Purple Heart
For wounds resulting in his death in action, 1 November 1943.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Anna T. Rulfs
Location Of Loss
Boat 21 sank while withdrawing Blue Beach 2, just east of Puruata Island.
