War Stories II (80 page)

SERGEANT NORMAN HATCH
stayed in the Marine Corps, was promoted to warrant officer, and went to Japan as part of the occupying American force after the war. He later joined the Bell & Howell Corporation, handling government projects, and still later returned to Washington, D.C., where he freelanced as a photographer. From 1956 to 1979 he became the first civilian to head the Public Affairs Department at the Pentagon.

LIEUTENANT DON LILLIBRIDGE
returned to the States after the war and went on to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he earned a Ph.D. He became a professor of history at California State University at Chico and taught until his retirement in 1981. He is also the author of six books, many articles, and a published war memoir.

CORPORAL HARRY NIEHOFF
was awarded five battle stars, two Purple Hearts, one Silver Star Medal, and one Bronze Star Medal for his heroism and exploits at the Battle of Tarawa. When discharged, he went home to Portland, Oregon, and enrolled in the Chouinard Art School in California. Niehoff pursued the home furnishing business, working with design, manufacturing, and sales until he retired in 1998. He often goes to public schools to tell students about his firsthand experiences in World War II.

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS RICK SPOONER
stayed in the Marines and retired in 1972 as a major. After retirement, Spooner decided to go into the restaurant business. He now owns and operates the Globe & Laurel Restaurant, just outside the gates of Quantico.

LIEUTENANT ALEX VRACIU
put in twenty years with the Navy, retiring in 1963. After that, he started another successful career with the Wells Fargo banking firm.

SERGEANT CYRIL “OBIE” O'BRIEN
left the Marines after the war but stayed in the Marine Reserves, putting in a total of twelve years of service and rising from sergeant to captain. He continued his work as a reporter, helping Americans understand everything from the politics of Washington to applied physics research at Johns Hopkins.

DON SWINDLE
left the Marines at the end of World War II. He returned to his home in Indiana and went back to work with General Motors until he retired in 1980. After a few restless years, he went to work for Ace Hardware for another six years. He works today as a security guard, more than sixty years after the battles he fought in the South Pacific.

MAJOR GORDON GAYLE
rose through the ranks of the Marine Corps and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He retired from the Corps in 1968. He then went to work with the Georgetown Center for Strategic Studies, where he worked on a study of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He later wrote a book about his Pacific war experiences,
Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu
.

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS FRED FOX
went to college on the GI Bill and was given a disability pension because of the wounds he received in the Battle of Peleliu. He returned to Peleliu in 1964, twenty years after he fought there, and exorcised his demons of combat. He also went back for the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu in 1994.

PHARMACIST MATE THIRD CLASS JOHN J. HAYES
was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his actions at Peleliu. After recovering from his shrapnel wounds, he served again in the invasion of Okinawa, where he was also decorated. After the war, he was discharged from the Navy and joined the Coast Guard. Thanks to the GI Bill, he got a degree from the University of Missouri and his master's in hospital administration from Washington University in St. Louis. He served in hospital administration for the next thirty-eight years.

CAPTAIN EVERETT POPE
met President Harry Truman when he presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor in June 1945, even as plans were being made to end the war by the first tactical use of atomic bombs. Pope left the Marine Corps after the war and became the youngest bank president in Massachusetts. He says he had to retire in 1980 because he was about to become the oldest.