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thedrifter
05-29-07, 06:32 AM
Owens answered hero's call, gave life for his country
Marine awarded Medal of Honor in World War II

Published: Monday, May 28, 2007 - 2:00 am

By Tim Smith
CAPITAL BUREAU
tcsmith@greenvillenews.com

By the time Marine Sgt. Robert A. Owens of Greenville faced the Japanese gun emplacement on Bougainville Island the morning of Nov. 1, 1943, the 75 mm cannon had already destroyed at least four landing craft loaded with Marines and hit 10 others.

His act of bravery that morning, which ultimately took his life, is credited with saving the lives of many others and helping to gain the Marines a beachhead in a critical last battle for the Solomon Islands during World War II.

President Harry Truman posthumously awarded Owens the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor.

Owens remains one of two Greenville recipients to receive the award and the only

Marine from South Carolina to receive the award in World War II.

From the Civil War through the 1990s, South Carolina has claimed 29 of the nation's Medal of Honor recipients. The award is bestowed for "conspicuous gallantry ... at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty."

Chuck Melson, chief historian for the Marines, said what Owens did in 1943, while heroic, was repeated by other Marines as they faced an implacable enemy.

"It seems to be the lesson that was learned," he said, "In the end, it's people who fight and win wars, not ordinance and hardware."

Owens enlisted in the Marines in February 1942, three months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and six months after he turned 21.

He became a sergeant in Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, when it was sent into the campaign to take the Solomon Islands in the Pacific from the Japanese.

Melson said Japan operated key air and naval bases out of the islands that threatened to cut the supply lines between the United States and Australia.

After bloody battles in the southern Solomon Islands, the Japanese withdrew from Guadacanal in early 1943.

Bougainville, in the northern Solomons, was the largest island in the chain and supported Japanese air and naval forces.

On Nov. 1, 1943, Owens' division began landing operations into a bay in the center of the island. While some of the beaches were unguarded, one shoulder of the bay contained a 75 mm gun protected in a bunker of coconut logs and connected to a series of rifle pits.

The big gun fired 50 high-explosive shells on Marine landing craft, according to the Marines' official narrative of the battle.

Owens, determined to silence the gun, posted four of his men to attack the gun's protective rifle pits. As he waited for his men to get in position, he watched as the Japanese shot each one.

"Realizing that once having begun the assault it would be useless to stop, he advanced on the gun position alone, being hit several times on the way," reported Maj. John M. Rentz, USMR, in a history of the battle.

Owens didn't stop, Rentz wrote, entering through the front firing port and killing several enemy soldiers. The remainder fled through the back, where they were shot by other Marines.

Owens followed but collapsed and died from his wounds.

"Among many brave acts on the beachhead of Bougainville, no other single act saved the lives of more of his comrades or served to contribute so much to the success of the landings," said Maj. Gen. Allen H. Turnage, then-commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division.

On Aug. 12, 1945, Maj. Gen. Clayton B. Vogel, commanding general of the then-Parris Island Marine barracks, presented the Medal of Honor on behalf of Truman to Owens' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph V. Owens of Drayton, a community just north of Spartanburg.

"Indomitable and aggressive in the face of almost certain death, Sgt. Owens silenced a powerful gun which was of inestimable value to the Japanese defense and, by his brilliant initiative and heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, contributed immeasurably to the success of the vital landing operations," the citation read. "His valiant conduct throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service."

The Navy commemorated Owens' heroism by naming a destroyer after him in 1945.

Owens' heroism and the stories of more than 3,000 other Medal of Honor recipients are detailed in the Medal of Honor Museum, which opened this week aboard the WWII aircraft carrier Yorktown in Mount Pleasant.

Ellie