On Memorial Day I was reading a list of veteran’s memorial sites
when I came across the name Douglas A.
Munro. It was familiar to me only
because of the many letters I wrote to my husband when he was serving aboard
the USS Douglas A. Munro, DE422, during the Korean War. At that time, the ship was engaged in nonstop
shelling of enemy installations ashore.
With help from Google, I learned that Signalman 1st
Class Douglas A. Munro was the only United States Coast Guardsman ever awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor. He
died at Guadalcanal on September 27, 1942, while evacuating a party of Marines
under heavy fire and shielding them with his own body until the last one
escaped. Survivors said his last words
were, “Did they get out?” - Emily Harris
Reprinted from Hatchcover of June, 2011
