Fire Creeping In Short Grass: Reflections on a U.S. Marine's Journey: Before, During and After WWII

By Grady Weaver

The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a pivotal moment in U.S. and world history. The attack thrust the U.S. into World War II and set in motion a series of events that would transform the country into a global superpower and guardian of international order.
Frank Trimual Wall would be a volunteer that joined the Marine Corps several days before smoke blackened the skies above Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. As a young seventeen year old that had worked diligently the year before trying to set the stage for gaining entry into the Corps, he was already of the state-of-mind to risk what military service may offer.
After passing through the rigors of Parris Island and New River, Wall's notable backwoods charisma would see him pass through the horrors of combat while serving overseas for some twenty-nine continuous months. Upon returning to the states after his time in the Pacific, Frank Wall would commence on a path with the Corps that saw numerous assignments at various bases with a major emphasis being placed on his ability to play baseball for those locations he was assigned.
Fire Creeping in Short Grass is an inspiring story of an unassuming man who lived and died as a shinning example of what is best found among the United States Marine Corps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098328665

Book preview

Fire, by itself it has no force; it depends on its environment. Give it air, dry timber, a wind to fan the flames, and it gains a terrific momentum, growing hotter, feeding off itself, consuming everything in its path.

—Robert Greene

2006

© 2020 LTC Grady Weaver, III USA (Retired)

All rights reserved

Print ISBN: 978-1-09832-865-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09832-866-5

Printed in the United States of America on

SFI certified paper.

First Edition

This body of work is dedicated to my wife, Frances (Fran) Louise Wall Weaver, who painstakingly took on the search to find out just who her father was. She lost her United States Marine Corps dad—Frank Trimual Wall—at the age of four (4) but rediscovered him once she acquired the majority of his military records and organized the hundreds of personal letters he had written to her mother.

The completion of this book is a tribute to the patience of my spouse. She displayed the courage of a Drill Instructor while I often made a mess of our dining room table or our small cottage adjacent to our home.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Spark in the Land of the Sky

Chapter 2: Smoke from a Distant Fire

Chapter 3: Island of Fire, the ‘Canal

Chapter 4: The Wet Inferno, Cape Gloucester

Chapter 5: Demons Wait in the White-Hot Hell, Peleliu

Chapter 6: Outrunning the Flames

Chapter 7: Standing Tall as Timber

Chapter 8: Serving on Scorched Earth

Chapter 9: Living on Heated Death Ground

Chapter 10: Fanning the Flames

Epilogue

Tribute

About the Author

Bibliographical Note

Selected Bibliography

Foreword

The smoke that blackened the skies above Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941 soon created a United States Marine by the name of Frank Trimual Wall. As a young seventeen (17)-year-old that had worked diligently the year before trying to set the stage for gaining entry into the service of his country, he already portrayed that he was inherently decisive and ready to take risks. With his tall form—at a little over six feet, one inch—swaying from side to side while possessing supreme confidence with a deeply defined personality, he strolled into Asheville and then Raleigh North Carolina Marine Corps District Holding Stations to become engaged in a series of herculean tasks imposed by war. He possessed an extraordinary ability to focus while exhibiting the traits of being kind and gentle, which was reinforced by his notable backwoods charisma. Frank Trimual Wall knew that instinct mattered more than education and that courage was necessary for survival.

In this biographical account, Colonel Weaver has studied and researched the father-in-law he never met, thus identifying a United States Marine with a tough-to-script story. It is very evident that Colonel Weaver has portrayed Frank Trimual Wall’s military service and career to standard. Weaver acquaints the reader with Wall’s life and the unwavering love bestowed upon him by his aunt and uncle who raised him, his wife, two (2) daughters, and a host of others too numerous to name.

There are many excellent books on World War II and the United States Marine Corps, but within the confines of this volume, Colonel Weaver has made no attempt to compete with them. Weaver does not want to focus on strategy or tactics nor does he try to portray the big picture, just Strength-Courage-Patriotism-God-Country-Family-Vocation.

Written with the utmost respect for Wall’s family, personal courage, and zest for life, Fire Creeping in Short Grass is an inspiring story of an unassuming man who lived and died as a shining example of the struggles of those so often referred to as The Greatest Generation.

Colonel James C. Fowler

USA

4 July 2020

Colonel Jamie Fowler, a native of Darlington, South Carolina is presently assigned as Brigade Commander, 117th Engineer Brigade, Newberry, SC. Colonel Fowler received his commission as an Engineer Officer from Palmetto Military Academy (OCS). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Francis Marion University (1998), a master’s degree in Administration from Central Michigan University (2011), and a Master of Science Degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College (2017). His operational deployments include Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) as a Company Commander and Operation New Dawn (OND) as a Training Officer for U.S. Army Central Command, G7. (Photo courtesy of Colonel James Fowler)

A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.

—George William Curtis

(1824–1892)

Preface

At 1743 on 27 February 1957, Tech Sergeant Frank Trimual Wall succumbed to the horrors of stomach cancer while hospitalized at the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Naval Hospital. The United States Marine Corps had realized Wall was dying while stationed near Turner Air Field in Albany, Georgia, thereby basically granting him the last duty station of his choosing. Wall, his family, and the Corps settled on his final resting to take place at the National Cemetery in Florence, South Carolina. Frank Trimual Wall would return to the native soil from which he sprang.

When you will survive if you fight quickly and perish if you do not, this is called (death) ground…put them in a spot where they have no place to go, and they will die before fleeing. If they are to die there, what can they not do? Warriors exert their full strength. When warriors are in great danger, then they have no fear. When there is nowhere to go, they are firm, when they are deeply involved, they stick to it. If they have no choice, they will fight.

—Sun Tzu

4th Century B.C.

Acknowledgments

On the eve of World War II, the United States Marine Corps’ ranks stood at a paltry eighteen thousand (18,000) men. Most served as ships’ detachments, guards, or in the small but effective Fleet Marine Force. Notably, Marines had rarely been afforded a major role in America’s past wars, despite many hard-won battle honors. They had almost never operated in a unit larger than a brigade. This was all about to change.

WWII represents the bloodiest and most furious period in the Marine Corps history. Primarily committed to the Pacific Theatre, Marines faced Imperial Japanese forces in fierce island combat.

Warfare in the Pacific was very different from that in Africa and Europe. Each island campaign was almost a war of its own. Every operation was also markedly different in terms of terrain, tactics, and organization. It was war at its worst.

Earlier lessons in amphibious operations paid off. Marine tactics became well adapted to the challenges of island combat, and the Corps emerged at the end of the war as America’s premiere fighting force.

This little volume is intended as a humble tribute to the memory of Frank Trimual Wall, a member of the heroic Corps. He was born in Union, South Carolina, but earmarked as a native of Tryon, North Carolina. He personified the Corps’ strongest link to freedom and hope while reinforcing the adage there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

As noted before, this author never knew Frank Trimual Wall and has learned about him only through the experiences of others. Over two hundred (200) letters and postcards written by Frank to his beloved partner in life, Thelma, are worldly possessions that are invaluable. My wife—Fran—inspired me with her quest to understand the father she lost at such an early age. In 2007, Fran was coauthor of a cookbook called The Screened Door Pantry published by Wimmer Cookbooks of Memphis, Tennessee. In this publication was a thumbnail sketch of her father that ignited a bevy of activity that has encompassed years of research as to who Frank Trimual Wall was.

Obviously, Frank Wall was a survivor, especially since his youth was full of many family challenges. His early childhood experiences channeled him into service for his country where he soon lived, ate, and slept twenty-four (24) hours a day with the men who would help mold him as a future NCO (Noncommissioned Officer).

Many thanks are extended to the devoted citizens and Marines that fielded the many questions that were asked of them when being confronted at a particular military base, museum, local Court House, public school administration building, Assisted Living Center, Chamber of Commerce, or one’s own living room.

Then there are those that have shown interest in the construction of this book: Danny Weaver of Darlington, South Carolina (older brother of the author who has always inspired a patriotic focus by being an example of one who loves his country, and portrayed it by serving in the Navy as well as retiring from the South Carolina Army National Guard), Jimmy Chandler of Darlington, South Carolina (cousin of the author who provided insight and suggested reading material on Marine Corps life since he lived thus in the Corps, serving in a Recon Platoon in Vietnam during the mid-sixties while also attending the Officer Candidate School with the author; he passed away on 15 June 2020 due to complications from Agent Orange), Jim Hines of Hartsville, South Carolina (friend of the author, work mentor, son of a career Marine and former Sonoco Vice President that provided insight, Marine paraphernalia, and pictures of WWII Marine Campaigns in the Pacific), Mike Jackson of Hartsville, South Carolina (the author’s cohort, a past Commander of Hartsville American Legion Post 53, whose friendship with the author led to their visiting the Solomons Island area of Maryland together whereby the author could walk the ground where Frank Trimual Wall trained for his upcoming amphibious operations in the Pacific; within a month after visiting the old training site, Mike Jackson passed away), Dan Lane of Kearny, New Jersey (close friend of the author that shared Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training experiences with the author, and has maintained contact over the years and shared photographic insights), Josh Fowler of Olive Branch, Mississippi (the author’s friend, confidant, pseudo-son, and all-around good buddy with an English major background and provided guidance whenever needed), and Rhett Cagle of Hartsville, South Carolina (grandson of the author whose love for knowledge and understanding provided reinforcement to finish this book and who initiated a hand-drawn rendering to possibly use as this book’s cover).

And finally there are those who eminently knew or remembered Frank Trimual Wall, some of whom are: George Ayer of Long Island, New York; Harold Taylor of Tryon, North Carolina; Ray Schum of Palm Springs, California; George Greene of Morganton, North Carolina; Bill Lindsey of Beaufort, South Carolina; and Russell Futch of Port Orange, Florida. May they live forever in our hearts and minds.

Introduction

On 1 September 1939, German armored columns and attack aircraft cross the Polish border on a huge front, and WWII begins. Frank Trimual Wall is a fifteen (15)-year-old that is about to receive his Handicraft Merit Badge by way of his Boy Scout Troop I in Tryon, North Carolina. Frank is also treading water economically since the nation is ten (10) years into the Great Depression. He listens intently to the older adults in the community discuss world affairs and begins to form his personal opinions on such matters.

In the United States of America, a week after the fighting starts in Poland, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a limited national emergency. During the next two (2) years, the US increasingly shifts from a stance of public neutrality to one of preparation for possible war. Frank Trimual Wall observes the recall to active duty of retired armed forces regulars from the Polk County, North Carolina area he lives in. Frank is deep into formulating his plans for serving his country.

America could not concentrate its attention on Europe alone in those eventful years, for another potential enemy dominated the Far East. In September 1940, Japan became the third member of the Axis Powers, thus rounding out the grouping of Germany and Italy. Japan had pursued its own program of expansion in China and elsewhere in the 1930s, therefore directly challenging America’s interests. At the time of the Axis Powers formation, Frank Wall is engaged in playing football for the Tryon-Saluda School Unit in North Carolina while also playing baseball in the local Industrial League, commonly known as the Textile League. He continues to keep up with current events through various channels—that is, Tryon School classroom and assemblies, Rectors Cleaners, Cowan’s grocery store, Missildine’s drug store, The Tryon Movie Theater, The Tryon Daily Bulletin, and his uncle’s barbershop.

As time moves on and Frank is filtering the fog of war that hangs in the air, he is becoming more theatrical. He has already played the part of King Ferdinand at a Tryon School assembly in observance of The Discovery of America. This particular trait is a quality very useful in the military, especially when convincing others to risk their lives. He was instinctively theatrical in much that he did. What few photos exist of him capture the essence of him as an athlete, Marine, and family man. His life was undeniably dramatic.

Frank proudly attaches himself to the game of baseball which eventually becomes his favorite form of recreation, as well as a large portion of his future social life.

Yet we will never actually see him in character. He left us at an early age and we are to deal with what has been preserved in the way of letters, postcards, sport clips, baseball annuals, and photos.

Chapter 1

A Spark in the Land of the Sky

Most anyone can look back over their lives and easily see events that led to common happenings like graduating from High School, playing local sporting activities into their forty’s or joining the public workforce. These commonplace events would not be the case for Frank Trimual Wall. He was who he was because of where he was when. His story is one of strength and courage that found him carrying on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Predestination or fate channeled Wall. Instead of finalizing his High School years with a diploma, he decided to excuse himself from his arduous studies and become a United States Marine.

What if? The first twenty-one (21) years of his life painted a picture of a young man progressing through one adventure after another. He would eventually find his calling in the Corps and who knows where a full military career could have taken him. He may well have been an authoritative, long-service NCO with sleeves covered by chevrons, service stripes and overseas bars-a zebra. Wall possessed a toolbox of depression era survival skills and the Corps would provide another such accumulation of military expertise.

It was just three (3) months prior to Calvin Coolidge becoming President of the United States that Frank Trimual Wall was born in Union County, South Carolina, on 4 August 1924. His father, Frank Trimmier (Trim) Wall, was a common laborer that had sought work near a sibling (sister) in the adjoining county of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Like most women of the 1920s, his mother Mary Jessica (Jessie) Johnston Wall was relegated to carrying for the infant Frank as a homemaker.

Trim Wall and Jessie Wall. (Photo courtesy of the Wall family album)

Very soon after the toddler Frank is up and walking, his father Trim follows work into Polk County North Carolina and takes up residence in the Columbus Township. Here relatives from both sides of the marriage abound only a few miles away in the Village of Tryon. In time, young Frank welcomes a younger brother-Calvin Wall-on 5 September 1927.

The environment Frank is immersed in rests within a valley which is much like a huge amphitheater on the front edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Appalachian Chain almost surrounds the valley and is plentiful of trees along with various sources of water. Elevations range from 1,000 feet to 1,200 feet above Mean Sea Level. The area is very desirable for raising fruit crops like apples and grapes since frost does not form in the spring or winter. The lack of humidity basically guarantees a dry atmosphere. Scenic beauty abounds whereby two-lane roads that hug mountainsides fall off into splendid views of small valleys with streams. This is a place of beautiful wildflowers, waterfalls and colorful song birds. Here is where Frank will develop "memories that become more like fantasies the more distant I travel from home."

Frank Wall’s childhood surroundings provided numerous life-lessons whereby he gained an historical perspective of what Americana was all about. Consciously or subconsciously Frank absorbed the abundant Warrior-Ethos Script that his home area was plastered with.

Some forty-seven (47) years after Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, Hernando Desoto had arrived in the mountain country, probably wondering into the area that one day would become Polk County North Carolina. In looking for the headwaters of the Broad River, here Desoto (1540) found the Cherokee Indian Nation in a very advanced stage of civilization. The Cherokee lived in log homes, were avid hunters and they were growing corn, pumpkin as well as an assortment of beans.

(Note: Frank Wall would learn that an area’s natural resources are the most vital factor in determining the way of life of a self-sufficient people. He would also explore the relationship that exists wherever wildlife and people share natural resources. He extrapolated well that wood provided shelter for people and animals, fire for warmth and cooking, material for tools and toys along with a thousand other things. The trees themselves provided fruit, nuts, syrup, ingredients for many home remedies, and even clues to what the weather would be in the coming months. From the Cherokee tribes he would surmise they used local wild plant life to: calm upset stomachs (American holly), treat fevers (Bee balm), make gentile laxatives (Butterfly weed), wrestle worms/nosebleeds/sores (Cardinal flower), eat as a fruit (Crabapple), handle heart trouble (Eastern columbine), prevent laryngitis (Flowering dogwood), attack earache/snake bite (Orange coneflower), handle coughs/toothaches (Red raspberry), season opossum when cooking (Spicebush), and bathe in a tea made from bark for ball players to ward off tacklers (Winterking hawthorne.))

As the first White Settlers moved in, they quickly found this area to be a fantastic place to live even though they would be isolated and travel was difficult. Some twenty (20) or thirty (30) years before the American Revolution a handful of families established roots in the mountain coves right in the midst of the Cherokee hunting grounds. By 1767, traders were traveling up from Charleston, South Carolina, for furs and hides. Many clashes with very much bloodshed resulted from the two civilizations living within such close proximity to each other. The conflicts became so numerous that the Royal British Governor-William Tryon-had to journey from his colonial capital in New Bern to the western part of the colony so as to parley with the Cherokees and negotiate a boundary. When the treaty was signed, the settlers named the highest point of the area in the Governor’s honor (Tryon Peak). These area settlers soon took on the rightful tag as over mountain folks or backwater men and women since their like made up ninety per cent (90%) of the southern highlands-aka Euro-Americas (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland). They possessed fierce pride and were stoutly self-contained. These farmers demonstrated the same independence and dogged resistance to tyranny in their own country thus marking their character at their new home. Their heritage fit them well as soon to be mostly Patriots in the struggles of the 1780s.

(Note: Frank Trimual Wall’s namesake ancestors were via two (2) brothers that came from England while moving through Maryland and Virginia, finally establishing residences in the upstate of South Carolina as well as the nearby western portion of North Carolina. The earliest available records of the Wall family place them among the Norman Conquerors. They served under William the Conqueror and no doubt waged many battles over their country in Northern France. In 1198 and again in 1272, men of the family migrated from Normandy to England, and thus sprang the Wall family where they pruned down the name from de Walla. It was in 1661 that one branch of the Walls came to America to settle in Maryland before moving south. They brought with them characteristics of thrift and industry. On another branch of the family, Frank’s grandmother was a direct descendant of the Pace family that initially settled in what was called Pace’s Gap, known today as Saluda, North Carolina.)

During the American Revolution, the local settlers and farmers were under constant threat of attack by neighboring Indian tribes. The Indians’ alliance to the British and their treaties spelled disaster for the Revolutionaries. Forts were constructed in the area but Indian raids caught the families by surprise with no time to retreat to such fortifications.

As a result of such raids and massacres, a Captain Thomas Howard chose to attack an encampment of Indians at Round Mountain (also known as Little Warrior Mountain) during March or April of 1776. Captain Howard was part of the nearby South Carolina Militia and chose to bring a company size element of military rangers to do battle with the Cherokee. There was no known passage to the area but a Cherokee named Schuyucha was sympathetic to the pioneers and led Captain Howard along an old trading path that resulted in a decisive victory thus ending the raids in the area. This trading path would soon become known as Howard Gap.

(Note: Frank Wall would learn that Tryon County once existed in 1778 but use of the term Tryon was discontinued because revolutionary fever created a bad taste in the mouths of Patriots. History would also tell Wall that General George Washington’s most dangerous opponent in New York City during the American Revolution was exiled loyalist governor William Tryon, a vindictive man who ran an effective loyalist spy ring and believed capturing or killing Washington would end the colonial revolt. Wall’s family linage on his mother’s side exhibited both Loyalist as well as Patriot participants.)

Around 1795, as the area’s population grew, this amphitheater like valley became a favorite stop-off for drovers moving livestock from Kentucky and Tennessee to seaboard harbors. This conglomeration of animals was actually made up of turkeys, cattle, and pigs.

(Note: Not native to North America, Frank Wall would come to know that the Spanish explorer Hernado DeSoto first introduced pigs to the continent in the 1500s. Wall was known to love and indulge in eating the fatty portion of a pork chop while soliciting the remnants from others who failed to consume such fat.)

One of the main routes for drovers was the Howard Gap Road which to this day has never been abandoned. It is a two-lane road where history and legend walk hand-in-hand. As political independence emerged, so sprang communities like Tryon Village, Columbus Township, Lynn, Saluda, Mill(s) Spring(s), Big Level, Cooper’s Gap, Green River, and Collinsville.

It was not until 1855 that County status was again achieved. Polk County acquired its name from the Revolutionary war hero-Colonel William Polk. The county seat was an ancestral name taken from a relative of Dr. Columbus Mills who was a Revolutionary Loyalist that was possibly hanged by Patriots after his capture at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

(Note: Frank Wall had a fourth great-grandfather that was a Loyalist who lost his life in an ambush at Shallow Ford on the Yadkin River (North Carolina) in 1780.