FACTS ABOUT GUADALCANAL

1. It was the first battle in American History where all branches of the current military participated: Navy, Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard.  Signalman First Class Douglas Munro became the only member of the Coast Guard to ever earn the Medal of Honor.  He led a rescue mission of a Marine unit that had been ambushed behind enemy lines.  Under heavy machine gun fire, Munro’s boats pulled the men off the beach.  He was shot in the head on the way out.
2. The invasion which began on August 7, 1942 (exactly nine months after Pearl Harbor) was codenamed “Operation Shoestring”.   The name implied the limited resources available because the operation had to be thrown together at the last minute when it was discovered that the Japanese were constructing an airfield that could have threatened the supply line to Australia. 
3. The landing was unopposed and the airfield was captured the first day. It was named Henderson Field (named after a Marine torpedo bomber pilot who was killed in the Battle of Midway) and the next few months involved the Japanese desperately trying to take it back and the Marines holding them off.
4. The air unit that flew from Henderson Field was called the Cactus Air Force. It’s most famous member was Joe Foss.  Foss became the first American fighter ace to reach Eddie Rickenbacker’s 26 victories in WWI.  Foss did it in an F4F Wildcat that was inferior to the Zero fighters he faced.  Foss was awarded the Medal of Honor.
5. There were five major naval battles in the campaign. The first, the Battle of Savo Island, was one of the worst naval defeats ever suffered by the U.S. Navy.  Four cruisers were sunk with little damage to the Japanese fleet.  The Navy lost two aircraft carriers during the campaign.  The Wasp was sunk by a Japanese submarine and the Hornet was lost in the Battle of Santa Cruz.
6. This was the first battle where Americans encountered the suicidal banzai charges the Japanese army would become famous for. In the first attempt to recapture the airfield, 789 of 917 Japanese soldiers were killed in a night attack that was decimated by Marines in a strong defensive position.
7. James Jones’ novel “The Thin Red Line” was inspired by his experiences in the 25^th Army Division on Guadalcanal. “Guadalcanal Diary” was written by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis.  He was embedded with the Marines in the early days on the island.  It was made into a movie just a year after the battle.
8. The Marines had to deal with diseases like dysentery and malaria. Not to mention the alligators, snakes, mosquitoes, spiders, wasps, and other creepy crawlies that inhabited the island.
9. Here’s the epitaph on a grave on the island:

                                And when he goes to Heaven,
                                To St. Peter he will tell:
                                Another marine reporting, Sir;
                                I’ve served my time in Hell.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/02/09/7_things_you_didnt_know_about_guadalcanal_109005.html

Marines on the march