My father William P. Dale Jr who was a Lieutenant in the 6th division that landed on Okinawa on April 1st 1945, has passed away in Hanover Twp (Lehigh County) Pennsylvania on August 27, 2009. He was a Captain when he was relaesed from the Marines.

Like many of the 6th division, he spoke little of the horrors of the battles but he spoke of the people and places he saw. Here are some of his stories he relayed to us.

In Spring of 1942, along with most of the Univ of Miami Football team, he went down to enroll in the Marines without call for one year.
In Summer 1943, he was transfered to DUKE University to prepare for V-12 program. That was an all-star collection of football players at Duke that year awaiting their training. Just prior to the Ga Tech game, my dad got called on duty and was transfereed to Parris Island. In January, 1944, he was sent to Quantico, Va for Officer Training. He befriended ND Football star Angelo Bertelli while there.

In March he was promoted to 2nd Lt and was transfereed to duty in 2nd Marines. After taking a train across country, took a boat to Guadalcanal in May, 1944 where they trained and had slight contact with some Japanese in the mountains. The following January they boarded a boat to head to Okinawa.

After landing on Easter Sunday April 1st, the Marines took the airport and traveled north encountering slight contact to secure the island portion. Then they headed south of Airport to replace the army Army troops.
My father, Bill Dale, was injured 3 times in the battle at Sugar Loaf. He took shrapenal in the eye area on May 21 and treated at 6th marine hospital east & on May 22nd, he took shrapenal on the leg and was treated by a 2nd battalion-4th regiment doctor. And then only hours after having to take over the remains of his unit on the morning of May 25th, he was shot through his lower left abdomen and out his right buttocks. After being taken to a Tent Hospital Field Hospital #3 near the Airport, he was eventually sent back to Guam to heal. He mentioned being seen by a Dr Burke and Dr Miller and then a Guam Fleet Hospital #111. His purple heart had some notes behind it.

Around July 4th, he had an interesting experience sneaking out the window of the Hospital along with Angelo Bertelli (ND Football) who was recovering from injuries he recieved with the 29th regiment. That night they got themselves into a Dance where the Nurses were available. And the MC of the dance was a young man with a deep voice named Ed McMahon.

Around July 8th, he returned to duty and took a ship to Japan where they eventually landed at Yokosuka in August while the Treaty was being signed offshore.

My father tells a great story of the Marines landing at Yokosuka where they stormed the beach to knock in doors and make sure all Japanese were disarmed in the local village. After taking the precautions of being swift and quite forceful in their approach, they realized that there was an elderly gentlemen standing back on the beach with a cigar box holding most of the keys to the village as a surrender.

He spent 4.5 months at Yokosuka where they played basketball to keep in shape and even had holiday dinner with the Mayor of Yokosuka. He had a leave trip around Thanksgiving along with Lt "soup" Campbell, they took a jeep through Yokahama and Tokyo to a hotel at Nikko. They saw the famous bridge where the Emperor announced he was no longer a "god". They ended up eating a large meal with dozens of Japanese leaders in the hotel before returning to Yokosuka.

On January 1, 1946 much of the 4th regiment was broke up but my father was sent along with some others to transport the records of the new Marines coming to China. They rode upon some oil ships and they had 3 days in Shang-hai before moving inland to Tsingtao where the Marine replacements were to settle.
Their reward was one month off duty awaiting a ship back to the States. He recalled some of the skirmishes that were going on between the Nationalists & the Communists in China.

In March 1946, he spent two weeks walking around California with a Marine buddy from Detroit named Mchammer (sic?) before my dad boarded a train back to Boston (Arlington).
There is a small article from 1946 in his papers showing that he represented the 6th division Marines at a monument placed in Wintrop Square, West Medford, Massachusetts dedicated to a Marine hero by the name of Corporal Edward A. Fennelly who died at Okinawa.

My Father was released as a Captain in May 1946 (and not called back due to his injuries) and he went back to finish his senior year at Univ of Miami and he served in the Marine Reserves until 1957.

My father spoke very little about the hardships of war over the years and only in later years did we get him to tell the stories above that could be passed to his grandchildren and others. He had a decent collection of historical pictures from his time in Guadalcanal, Japan & China that I will pass copies on to the 6th Marines publications.

IF THERE IS ANYONE THAT RECALLS MY FATHER, BILL DALE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST FURTHER INFORMATION.

Also, we are planning to post a Flag pole and a small memorial to the 6th Division Marines at the Park adjacent to my Father's home in Hanover Township (Lehigh County), PA where he lived for the last 49 years. Like many of the members of the greatest generation, my father was very instrumental in his Church, his community and the lives of his 6 children.

There is a photograph taken in the Yokosuka Officers Club showing the following individuals... Larry Shea, "Soup" Campbell, Ed Dannenberger, Ernie Tongate, Bob Hughes, Harold Mochaner, Bill Dale (my dad), Bob Frye, ?? Markuzen, Art Dannenberger.

The spelling is probably wrong on a few of those names but wanted to share that info in case anyone recognizes any of those officers.

Some further info on William P Dale Jr.

He was assigned to E company in September 1944 as the platoon leader with extra duties as 2nd Battalion "chemical officer". He was a 2nd Lieutenant when he joined the 6th Division and went to Gauadalcanal and eventually Okinawa where he recieved 3 separate injuries (shrapnel eye 5/20 & shrapnel leg 5/21) near Sugar Loaf including being shot in left abdomen on May 25th.
Following his recovering on Guam, he was part of the 4th Marines of Task Force 31 that entered Tokyo Bay and took Yokasuka on August 30th. He recieved a promotion to 1st Lieutenant on Sept 15, 1945 while in Japan and before he went on to China the following January.
He recieved a final promotion to Captain in USMC Reserves in 1951 and left the Reserves in 1957.