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- Feb 2, 2008
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Yesterday was the 70th Anniversary of the start of the Guadalcanal campaign. For those who have never read about, or talked to anyone who served on Guadalcanal, it was really a unique campaign- it was a cobbled together operation in which the 1st Marine Division were told only at the last minute that they were making a combat assault. There was little training, really old individual equipment and communications gear The ships were not even combat loaded, the Amphibious and Carrier task forces were under different leadership with different objectives and the overall commander was not up to the job. The result was that the campaign stretched on far longer than it should have with the Marines only a notch above starvation at some points as the transports and supply ships left before they were unloaded, and control of the air and sea was contested for most of the campaign- the Navy suffering huge losses in several surface gun battles (more sailors were killed than Marines and Soldiers were killed ashore). Nontheless- the Marines demonstrated incredible perseverance and tenacity and with the help of the later arriving 25th Infantry Division eventually managed to secure the island. It was a tough campaign that deserves to be remembered still.
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