thedrifter
09-18-09, 08:22 AM
WWII Marine correspondent wrote on the front lines
By Hugh Lessig
757-247-7821
10:27 PM EDT, September 17, 2009
HAMPTON
In 1944, U.S. Marines landed on Guam in a furious bid to reclaim the island from the Japanese.
Pvt. 1st Class Cyril J. O'Brien hit the beach in the third wave with his weapon of choice: a Hermes typewriter.
A Marine combat correspondent, O'Brien set to work on his first story after climbing out of a shell hole.
"I was going to be Ernest Hemingway," he recalled. "I started to write this epic story that was going to go down in history. I'll be damned. In about 10 minutes, the mortars started coming in. Now they're interfering with my story."
It didn't matter. O'Brien pulled himself off the beach that day and went on to chronicle the battle for Guam from a ground-level view.
Later, he would file dispatches from Iwo Jima before leaving the Marines with the rank of sergeant and going on to a career as a newspaperman in Washington, D.C.
His war stories, some of which exist as old carbon paper files, include a riveting account of the battle for Chonito Ridge on Guam. The copy stands the test of time.
Now 90 years old, O'Brien's spirit lives on in Marine combat correspondents who are chronicling the complex and fluid fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reporter/Marines were in Hampton all week for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which held its annual conference downtown.
One highlight was the award for combat cameraman of the year, which went to Cpl. Tyson Holm, of Iowa, who served in Afghanistan. Holm spent most of 2008 in that country, helping to mentor and train the Afghan National Army. He was a driver, gunner and patrolman, but he carried his camera.
"I was able to document what was going on," Holm said. "I took advantage of it."
He did more than that. When the enemy attacked Holm's outpost with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, he grabbed a light machine gun and began firing.
And in more relaxed times, he served as a personal mentor to Afghan Army members who started their own press.
"It was just one more way for them to take a step forward," he said.
Holm's environment is far different from the 1940s, but he shares something in common with O'Brien: a desire to document. "It's our way of keeping our history," Holm said.
For O'Brien, that history was measured in sand, blood, pillboxes and broken bodies. He focused on individual Marines in small-unit battles where there was a gold mine of stories.
All he had to do was dodge a few bullets.
"I always volunteered for patrol," he said. "If you were on patrol, it was always going to get fired on. And here's the advantage: Usually you get fired at — a little fire — but then remember, look what you got. You had 12 people. That's 12 hometown stories."
And like all good reporters, he knew a good story when he had it.
He recalled one patrol where Marines went into a village and found Japanese soldiers hiding in huts. Of all things, a fistfight broke out.
"It turned into a donnybrook," he said, "Rifle butts and left crosses, the Marines fighting them, and it was fabulous! It was such a good story! The Japs didn't get killed. They probably went home and had children. And a Minneapolis newspaper took that and made a cartoon out of it."
He laughs as he tells this tale, but do not mistake his love for a good yarn as disrespect for the Japanese or their fighting prowess. He grew quiet when recalling a patrol on Iwo Jima where Marines set up an ambush for Japanese who were desperately seeking water.
"In the morning, I went out and looked where the Japanese bodies were," he said. "And I found heel marks — someone had picked up the body of someone and dragged him."
He shook his head at the memory.
"Some heroic young Japanese had come in under our guns and taken the body of another Japanese," he said. "It may have been his brother, or someone he admired."
Cyril J. O'Brien
Marine Corps combat correspondent Cyril J. O'Brien filed his stories from the battlefront on a trusty Hermes typewriter (similar to the one below). O'Brien accompanied Marines on patrol and often found himself in the thick of fighting. Now 90 and living in Silver Spring, Md., he was in Hampton for the annual convention of the USMC Combat Correspondents Association.
Annual conference
The U.S. Marine Corps Correspondents Association held its annual conference in Hampton this week. The group formed in 1942, covering the Pacific battles against the Japanese. Its work continues today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ellie
By Hugh Lessig
757-247-7821
10:27 PM EDT, September 17, 2009
HAMPTON
In 1944, U.S. Marines landed on Guam in a furious bid to reclaim the island from the Japanese.
Pvt. 1st Class Cyril J. O'Brien hit the beach in the third wave with his weapon of choice: a Hermes typewriter.
A Marine combat correspondent, O'Brien set to work on his first story after climbing out of a shell hole.
"I was going to be Ernest Hemingway," he recalled. "I started to write this epic story that was going to go down in history. I'll be damned. In about 10 minutes, the mortars started coming in. Now they're interfering with my story."
It didn't matter. O'Brien pulled himself off the beach that day and went on to chronicle the battle for Guam from a ground-level view.
Later, he would file dispatches from Iwo Jima before leaving the Marines with the rank of sergeant and going on to a career as a newspaperman in Washington, D.C.
His war stories, some of which exist as old carbon paper files, include a riveting account of the battle for Chonito Ridge on Guam. The copy stands the test of time.
Now 90 years old, O'Brien's spirit lives on in Marine combat correspondents who are chronicling the complex and fluid fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reporter/Marines were in Hampton all week for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which held its annual conference downtown.
One highlight was the award for combat cameraman of the year, which went to Cpl. Tyson Holm, of Iowa, who served in Afghanistan. Holm spent most of 2008 in that country, helping to mentor and train the Afghan National Army. He was a driver, gunner and patrolman, but he carried his camera.
"I was able to document what was going on," Holm said. "I took advantage of it."
He did more than that. When the enemy attacked Holm's outpost with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, he grabbed a light machine gun and began firing.
And in more relaxed times, he served as a personal mentor to Afghan Army members who started their own press.
"It was just one more way for them to take a step forward," he said.
Holm's environment is far different from the 1940s, but he shares something in common with O'Brien: a desire to document. "It's our way of keeping our history," Holm said.
For O'Brien, that history was measured in sand, blood, pillboxes and broken bodies. He focused on individual Marines in small-unit battles where there was a gold mine of stories.
All he had to do was dodge a few bullets.
"I always volunteered for patrol," he said. "If you were on patrol, it was always going to get fired on. And here's the advantage: Usually you get fired at — a little fire — but then remember, look what you got. You had 12 people. That's 12 hometown stories."
And like all good reporters, he knew a good story when he had it.
He recalled one patrol where Marines went into a village and found Japanese soldiers hiding in huts. Of all things, a fistfight broke out.
"It turned into a donnybrook," he said, "Rifle butts and left crosses, the Marines fighting them, and it was fabulous! It was such a good story! The Japs didn't get killed. They probably went home and had children. And a Minneapolis newspaper took that and made a cartoon out of it."
He laughs as he tells this tale, but do not mistake his love for a good yarn as disrespect for the Japanese or their fighting prowess. He grew quiet when recalling a patrol on Iwo Jima where Marines set up an ambush for Japanese who were desperately seeking water.
"In the morning, I went out and looked where the Japanese bodies were," he said. "And I found heel marks — someone had picked up the body of someone and dragged him."
He shook his head at the memory.
"Some heroic young Japanese had come in under our guns and taken the body of another Japanese," he said. "It may have been his brother, or someone he admired."
Cyril J. O'Brien
Marine Corps combat correspondent Cyril J. O'Brien filed his stories from the battlefront on a trusty Hermes typewriter (similar to the one below). O'Brien accompanied Marines on patrol and often found himself in the thick of fighting. Now 90 and living in Silver Spring, Md., he was in Hampton for the annual convention of the USMC Combat Correspondents Association.
Annual conference
The U.S. Marine Corps Correspondents Association held its annual conference in Hampton this week. The group formed in 1942, covering the Pacific battles against the Japanese. Its work continues today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ellie