Roland Stoker, just another Marine?

World War II veteran Roland Floyd Stoker Sr. died May 3, but he was not just another veteran. Like all of the men and women who served in that conflict, he was special, and like most, has his own unique story.

This soldier served his country by fighting one of the fiercest U.S. adversaries ever, the Empire of Japan.

Like most war veterans, Roland spent a lifetime trying to forget most of what he witnessed. He only spoke about the everyday life of war and the amusing and even humorous memories.

He met once a week with a group for breakfast with a group of old veterans in Wasilla to share stories.

Roland joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor and was trained in communications. In 1942, he was assigned to the 9th Defense Amphibian Tractor Battalion on Guadalcanal. This battalion emphasized mobility and artillery support of ground operations and was armed with everything from Browning machine guns for anti-craft defense to “Long Tom” 155 mm guns that could shoot 14 miles. They also had tanks.

Soon after landing at Guadalcanal, the demolition crewman who was assigned to clear the surrounding jungle of trees was killed and Roland took his place. He wrapped detonation cord around coconut trees to clear an area for their large artillery pieces. During the war, Roland learned every job his unit required its men to do.

Late in August 1942, the Japanese Navy damaged the fleet in a night battle for the Eastern Solomon’s and forced the American ships to retreat. With their withdrawal, all supplies, including food and ammunition, could not be delivered to the Marines. At night, the battleships bombarded Henderson Airfield to dislodge the Marines and destroy the aircraft.

Weeks passed by without any food or ammunition. Near starvation, the Marines were able to capture a large supply of Japanese rice. Despite their dire situation, the cooks maintained a sense of humor.

The breakfast menu listed bacon and eggs with hash browns and toast followed by the words, “substitute — rice.” Lunch listed a hamburger with French fries and milk (substitute — rice). The supper menu was steak and green beans with mashed potatoes and gravy “substitute — rice).

When the Marines finally did get a supply drop from the air, the parachutes were colored so supplies could be identified and picked up according to priorities. Roland and his fellow Marines were excited about all the new parachutes because they would be able to line their foxholes with them, which they did. It rained hard that night and the next morning when the sun came up so everyone could look around and the men in every foxhole were a different color. They got lots of laughs out of that.

One day the Marines found out an Army general had a delivery of beef flown in on his B-25 and had it stored in a refrigeration unit that he had secured with steel straps and locks. He then departed Guadalcanal and did not return for several days. Upon flying back to the island, the general discovered the refrigeration unit had been blown open and the beef was missing. The Marines said the Japanese did it. Through the grapevine, he found out the Marines had eaten the beef.

The general had the entire Marine company stand at attention while he demanded that the man or men responsible for the missing beef step forward, but no one moved. He then threatened courts-marshal and imprisonment when he found the thief.

The general’s speech did not make much of an impression on the Marines who had been eating only rice, were nearly out of ammunition, and were now outnumbered by the enemy who had been landing reinforcements. Somehow the courts-marshal did not seem like much of a threat.

The Japanese were constantly bombing the airfield. At first they came in low and in tight formation so the lead aircraft could be followed. They did not have the sophisticated bombing sights that the Americans used. Roland’s unit was manning the anti-aircraft guns when the Japanese came over one bombing run. The anti-aircraft fire was directed at the first bomber, and just as it opened its bomb bay doors the Americans hit their bombs and blew the aircraft into thousands of pieces. The explosion was so great that the concussion and debris destroyed three planes behind the leader. From then on, the Japanese did not fly in that low, tight formation. The 9th Defense Battalion was awarded a citation for that action.

After Guadalcanal “was settled,” as Roland described the victory, most Marine battalions were sent to Australia for rest and recuperation. However, the 9th Defense Battalion was sent to the next Japanese-held island. This was a great disappointment to them.

Roland’s battalion moved onto Rendova in the Solomon’s on June 30, 1943, and had to fight as infantry before setting up their artillery. They fought with enemy patrols before they were able to set up a long gun on a northern point of the island.

The Japanese had an airfield at Munda Point on New Georgia Island across the channel from the U.S. gun emplacement. Every three days an U.S. PT boat would drop off a fresh Marine scout in Japanese territory to radio back vital information. The replaced scout would return to U.S.-held territory. The Japanese spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the scout, but could never locate him. These scouts were the modern version of today’s Navy Seals.

The Marine scout observed a Japanese truck drive across the Munda Point airfield at the same time and place every day and gave Roland’s unit the coordinates. One day at the appointed time the scout confirmed the sighting of the enemy vehicle. Roland’s unit fired the long gun and with one shot took out the target eight miles away.

Besides the Marines, the local native men also fought the Japanese. Roland told us, “They went out through our lines into the Japanese-held areas and wreaked havoc on the enemy’s numbers. They were dressed only in a loin cloth and armed with a machete and a sack of grenades.”

One islander found a large number of sleeping Japanese soldiers and killed every other one to instill sheer terror. They knew the island so well that after being out all night the islanders would slip back through the U.S. lines without ever being detected.

The Japanese greatly feared the locals because they would often take out the last man on their patrols. They would also sneak into their camps at night and eliminate the sentry and then toss grenades around the camp causing the soldiers to fire in every direction.

While talking with two friends, Roland heard a bomb whistling in and said he “didn’t get to the ground fast enough.” When he woke up, a corpsman was pulling shrapnel out of him. The two men alongside of him were severely wounded and had been taken away. After his wounds were bandaged, Roland immediately returned to fighting. Throughout the years, shrapnel continued to work its way out of his body. Two weeks before Roland died, another piece of shrapnel surfaced.

After the capture of Munda Point airfield, Roland’s unit protected the airstrip from Japanese air raids with anti-aircraft guns. The Navy pilots were not happy about being stationed on the ground with the Marines.

After the Marines made the initial assault on the island, Army reinforcements started to arrive. They came with brand new equipment and much better food than the Marines were eating. The Marines always kept an eye out for good rations, and when the Army arrived they devised a plan to get some of that food. The Marines sounded a false air raid siren, blew up some ordinance to simulate a bomb and when all the new Army troops took cover the seasoned Leathernecks swooped in and selected some choice items to eat.

When enemy bombers were picked up on the radar the Marines would blow the siren early and again raid the Army depot. When the Marine officers found out that the men were storing this food in their tents, they told them to get it to the mess hall where it could be guarded and looked like it was not pilfered. Marines had to stick together.

The Army also brought other higher quality items. One day after picking up supplies Roland spotted a hammock with a sewn on mosquito net strung between two trees. Protection from bugs while sleeping was a great idea. Roland rolled up the hammock and stuffed it in his pack. That night he strung it between two coconut trees and fell asleep. He was later awakened by the sound of Japanese bombs. While trying to get out of the zippered hammock/net combination Roland ended up upside down unable to get free as the bombs rained down. He finally managed to cut his way out with his bayonet. From that night on he thought it would be better to sleep with the bugs than to be stuck in a netted hammock while under attack.

On tiny islands north off Rendova, Roland and his crew manned antiaircraft guns that protected a “bush” fueling depot for the Navy’s patrol torpedo boats. The fuel station was located on a tiny atoll. Roland spoke with John F. Kennedy and all the other men on the PT boats. Besides manning the radio, Roland also scanned the sky for enemy aircraft, manned the guns and helped the fueling crews.

From New Georgia, the 9th set up on Arundel Island and shelled Kolombagara Island. The Japanese had large guns set up in caves and tunnels on the side of the steep 5,000-foot-high volcanic island that were very hard to take out. The Japanese would wheel or run them out to fire and then swiftly take them back inside the mountain.

The 9th’s next operation took place more than 1,000 miles north on Guam on July 21, 1944. They landed under intense fire. It took a month to secure the island.

While on Guam, the Marines gave the Chamorros M-1 carbines and two magazines of ammo per night. The Chamorros would always come back completely out of ammunition.

Roland and his battalion were discharged from the Marines in September 1944 in San Francisco without any money. But as it turned out, the people of the city were helping the GIs with food and anything they needed.

In 1946, Roland was recruited by the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant as part of the occupation of post-war Japan. Roland was in command of an engineering company assigned to build roads. He was given strict instructions by his commanding officers that he was not to help the Japanese in any way.

While traveling one morning Roland encountered a number of Japanese vehicles that blocked his path. He got out of his Jeep watched them run the truck back and forth trying to get out of a ditch they had created. Roland used hand signals and antics to show the Japanese how to throw rocks and sticks in the ruts enabling them to get better traction. They managed to get the truck back onto the road and all the vehicles started moving again.

A week later, Roland’s commanding officer called him in and said the general had informed him that Lt. Stoker was invited to the Imperial Palace by Emperor Hirohito to stay for the weekend and dine with the emperor’s family.

The general ordered him to attend, but wild horses could not have kept Roland away. Kindness, after such a horrific war, was honorable and greatly appreciated by the Japanese. Roland enjoyed the dinner, even though he had to eat with chopsticks and could not identify half of what he was eating.

Before leaving Japan, Roland discovered that there were missing firearms from a compound that was under his command. He found out that North Korean operatives had dug a tunnel under the surrounding fence and were stealing the arms. The operatives were immediately caught and imprisoned. This was a prelude to the coming Korean conflict.

Roland spent a year in Japan before being discharged from the U.S. Army in 1947. He learned a great deal about their culture and took many slides to bring home that showed their modes of dress and many tea ceremonies.

After his military service, Roland Stoker continued his life by marrying a sweet young woman in Colorado and raising a nice family that has grown large over the years. The remainder of his life was unbelievably varied and interesting. He always remained positive and looked toward the pleasant things in life.

Besides his bravery, one of Roland’s virtues that we old veterans most admired was his ability to forget the bad and possibly even forgive the nation he fought against.

The scars Roland received in the war, both physical and mental, were born in silence. He respected the people of Japan and never said anything negative about them. Not everyone can do that. Roland was a soldier who came back to mend the world.

So this Memorial Day holiday, think of our friend Roland Stoker and the millions of men and women who served this country and risked — and sometimes gave everything for — our freedom. God bless them all.

Lloyd Smith is a Valley resident and member of VFW Post 9365. Roland Stoker’s story is submitted as Stoker relayed it to him and a small group of local veterans.