Wilfred Harvey Ringer, Jr.
Captain Wilfred H. Ringer, Jr. commanded 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 O-6084
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
June 30, 1915
at Auburn, NY
Parents
Wilfred H. Ringer, Sr.
Marion (Francis) Ringer
Education
Gloucester High School (1932)
Brookline High School (1933)
Tufts University (1937)
Occupation & Employer
Enlisted in reserves as a student.
Service Life
Entered Service
June 4, 1935 (enlisted)
January 21, 1939 (officer)
Home Of Record
1511 Wood Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO
Next Of Kin
Wife, Mrs. Ruth Warren Ringer
Military Specialty
Combat Intelligence
R-2 Officer
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
Captain Wilfred H. Ringer, Jr. served as the senior intelligence officer (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. Many of the picked Marines were from Captain Ringer’s R-2 section.
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. Colonel Goettge, accompanied by Captain Ringer and 1Sgt. Steven Custer, headed into the treeline to find a suitable place to camp for the night. They stumbled into a Japanese guard force; Goettge and Custer were hit in a brief flurry of fire. With the colonel dead, Captain Ringer assumed command.
Ringer soon had several wounded men to worry about, and faced a difficult decision. He could try to break through the ambush and retreat back to American lines – but this would mean leaving the wounded behind to a terrible fate. In the end, he elected to try and hold out until help arrived. Ringer dispatched three runners, but as the night wore on and his men were whittled away, he despaired of rescue.
At dawn, Ringer was one of four men still able to fight. The treeline provided the only available cover, and so they made a break for safety. The lone survivor, Frank Few, described the last few moments of the patrol:
A few seconds later, Denzil Caltrider fell dead and Captain Ringer was shot and wounded. Few managed to escape by swimming to safety through a hail of bullets; he turned to “see the Japs on the beach using bayonets on our wounded and could clearly see the sunlight glinting on the two-handed Samurai swords.”
Captain Ringer 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 Warren Ringer
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.
A few months ago I purchased a used version of “Guadalcanal Diary” by Richard Tregaskis. It has the story of Captain Ringer’s unfortunate death in it on pages 96 and 97. It also has the signature of “Ruth W. Ringer” inside the front cover. The book indicates that it is a 1943 first printing by Random House. I would be pleased to present it to the Ringer family.