World War II hero: 'You do what you have to do'

U.S. Marine Tobe Cogswell at Gaudalcanal.

By Mitzi Brabb
Connection Correspondent

On December 7, 1941 an unexpected event shook this nation, and it touched the heart of every American. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought about an overwhelming yearning among Americans to prevail against the enemy of their time.

Thousands of men were compelled to join the war effort after the attack. Rim Country resident Tobe Cogswell, a young man of 24 on that day, remembers the incident well.

“Recruiters were busy as hell that Monday,” he said.

Cogswell was one of those men, ready to give up everything to fight to protect his country and everything important to him. After tying up a few loose ends at the Connecticut based machine shop he worked at, which was already involved in the war effort, he spent some time with his gal Roberta before heading to the recruitment office.

There was one more thing he needed to do. Hoping it wouldn’t be his last visit, Cogswell made a trip to California to see his mother.

On Jan. 6, 1942, he enlisted in the United States Marines, knowing that they would be the first to see action. He was sent to basic training at Paris Island in South Carolina. He expected to receive three months training, but found himself on the way to the front sooner than he expected.

“We did it in five weeks,” he said. “Then we were sent up to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.”

Cogswell was placed in intelligence, and began to study maps, providing the head of the Headquarters and Services, First Marine Regiment with combat information. That unit sailed from San Francisco on June 21, 1942 and got to Wellington, New Zealand some three weeks later.

There, they expected to receive additional training, but their orders were changed and they had to reload their ship with combat gear – they were heading for war. In fact, they were headed for a place that would take its place in American history as one of the most perilous details for soldiers in World War II - Guadalcanal.

One can imagine how this group of young, green men in their early 20s, some even younger, must have felt before going into battle.

“You do what you have to do. We just took everything as it came,” he said, with a proud smile.

By the morning of Aug. 7, Cogswell’s regiment had reached the Solomon Islands. Their first experience of the war came when U.S. Navy ships shelled the coastline. By dusk they arrived at the main island of Guadalcanal without opposition.

Cogswell remembers the calmness during his first few days ashore, despite being shelled by Japanese naval guns and planes.

“Most of the Japanese forces on the island were Korean laborers building an airfield. They weren’t really a threat,” said Cogswell.

On Aug. 8, allied warships that were screening transports unloading supplies were surprised and defeated by a Japanese task force of seven cruisers and one destroyer.

However, the really big naval battle took place two nights later on Aug. 10 near Savo Island. It resulted in the sinking of four allied cruisers. Another cruiser and two destroyers were also damaged in the battle.

“The Navy pulled off and left us,” Cogswell said.

Though food rations were low, Cogswell’s unit, as well as other Marines at Guadalcanal, spent the next few weeks forming a defensive perimeter around the Lunga Point Airfield. Cogswell was in charge of three other men on an intelligence crew on the west bank of the Tenaru River.

Before dawn on Aug. 21, 1942, the Japanese attacked the positions of the Second Battalion, First Marines at this point. Cogswell’s intelligence team was at an observation post when they were attacked by approximately 1,000 Japanese soldiers with hand grenades, machine guns and bayonets.

The Japanese attack was repulsed with great loss.

At daybreak, marine units counterattacked Japanese Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki’s surviving troops. Of the original 917 members of Ichiki’s unit, all but 128 men were killed in the battle.

Cogswell and two other members of his team were wounded in the attack. The unwounded member made his way back through “the bullet swept zone” to the command post to report the attack.

A letter of commendation from Cogswell’s commanding officer reads: “These men, rather than withdrawing toward the rear, as was warranted by their line of duty, took position on the front lines with those Marines already entrenched there, engaged in a furious hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and drove them back with great losses, preventing them from establishing a foothold on the western side of the Tenaru River.”

All these men were recommended for the Navy Cross but were awarded the Silver Star, which is the third highest decoration for action in battle. Cogswell also received a Purple Heart for his wounds during the battle.

Cogswell, who was wounded by a sniper, went to New Zealand for treatment while he recovered from bullet wounds. Afterwards, he returned to active duty on Guadalcanal.

On January 9, 1946, his tenure with the Marines ended.

Afterwards, he went into the printing business, and continued to work in that industry for the next 27 years.

The most rewarding element of the return to civilian life for Cogswell was reuniting with Roberta, whom he had married during a leave in July of 1944. Devoted to each other for 67 years, Cogswell still remembers fondly the letters his sweetheart wrote to him daily during the war.

In 1980, they retired from Scottsdale, and moved to Payson.

Today Cogswell is a member of the Marine Corps League of Payson, and belongs to an elite group of WWII Campaign Veterans who served at Guadalcanal between August 1942 and February 1943.

On Memorial Day in particular, we should all remember the people in our community, along with those across the country, who made the sacrifices to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today.