SEQUIM — For Charles Meacham, April 1 isn’t April Fool’s Day. It’s a reminder of heroism.
The former Marine Raider was on the front lines in the invasion of Okinawa, which started on April 1, 1945.
Still looking fit at 83, Meacham displays a blood-stained Japanese flag he picked up in World War II at his home perched above Sequim Bay.
He can’t remember where he got the priceless souvenir — it was either in Okinawa or Guam — but Meacham always remembers the first of April.
Tensions were running high that Easter Sunday as Meacham and his comrades waited in an amphibious tank off Okinawa, Japan.
The rear gate dropped, and they stormed the beach with a 75-millimeter cannon and machine guns backing them up.
Much to their surprise, they were met with little resistance.
“The Japanese developed a different technique,” Meacham said, contrasting the Okinawa invasion to the beach landings in France in 1944.
“They were in caves and hiding underneath things, with artillery set up to annihilate you once you were on shore.”
Japanese fighters unleashed their attack on the second day of the invasion, and Meacham was on the front lines.
Allied forces sustained heavy casualties in the battle of Okinawa — more than 12,000 Americans died — but they captured the island on June 21, 1945.
Marine Raiders
Since he retired from a political and consulting career in wildlife management, Meacham has dedicated his energy to honoring the 889 Marine Raiders who never came home.
A past president of the United States Marine Raiders Association, Meacham is now a board member of the U.S. Marine Raider Foundation.
The nonprofit group works to preserve the history of the Raiders and advance education, scholarships for native born children in the Soloman Islands and elsewhere.
Meacham’s son, also named Charles, of Gig Harbor, is the current president of the foundation.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after hearing Prime Minister Winston Churchill rave about British Commandos, formed the Marine Raiders in early 1942.
The Marine Raiders were the county’s first elite special operations unit, Meacham said.
Close to 8,000 men fought in the four battalions of the Marine Raiders from 1942 to 1944. They garnered seven Medals of Honor, 136 Navy Crosses, 330 Silver Stars and 169 Bronze Stars and other commendation.
Meacham fought in the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Harry Liversedge.
In 1944, the Marine Raiders became the 4th Marine Regiment.
Fallen Marines
Despite Meacham’s two years of combat at Bougainville Island, Emirau, Guam, and Okinawa, the seen-it-all war veteran chokes back his tears when he thinks about his fellow fighters who were killed in action.
Nine were captured and beheaded after the raid on Makin Island, and the Marine Raider Foundation is still looking for their remains.
“They were young guys,” Meacham said amid tears.
Meacham was born in Newman, Calif., and raised in Bishop, Calif. He said he felt a sense of patriotism when he joined the service at 17.
“My brother had gone, so it was time for me to go,” Meacham said.
He spent his 18th birthday in New Caledonia training for combat.
By that time, Meacham had already experienced a seminal moment in his life.
Daring climb
At 15, he was climbing alone near a 200-foot waterfall. He became trapped on a dangerous, slippery cliff that no one he knew had ever crossed before.
“There I was 100 feet from the top, 100 feet from the bottom, and 50 feet out onto the face of the falls,” Meacham said in a speech he gave at a Marine Corps function in Las Vegas on Nov. 10, 2005.
“I realized that I had made a huge mistake. I must advance to the rear.”
Meacham kept his cool and lowered himself to safety, and would later draw on that experience to help him conquer his fear during the war.
Thirty-six days into the invasion of Okinawa, while chasing Japanese fighters through terraced mountain terrain with a 20-pound Browning Automatic Rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition on his back, Meacham suddenly felt a sharp burning sensation in his chest.
“I though I had been hit,” he said in an interview at his home on Tuesday. “But there was no blood.”
That night, he had fever of 105 degrees.
He was delirious, later diagnosed with an internal injury to go along with the malaria, yellow jaundice and dengue fever that all the men contracted on the island.
He was taken off the battlefield for the last time.
“The next morning I heard a strange noise, a loud humming,” Meacham said.
“I woke up facing a flight nurse. It was the first time I had smelled perfume in 24 months.
“I though I had died and gone to heaven.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
