I am re-running this on Veterans Day. Reed is still going strong at the age of 87.
Reed is my brother, the fifth born of eight children and the second son. He is the second oldest of the four brothers, and his bravery is unmatched, especially in his service with the First Marine Division in World War II.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor when he was barely 18 years old.
Through the years all of us knew that he had been in heavy combat in World War II. I was told that my parents had received two telegrams, one telling that their son had been wounded in action and one telling that their son was missing in action.
Reed, as most combat veterans of World War II, never spoke to us of his war days in all of those 60 plus years since.
It was only in the past few days that we learned the story of Reed's heroic and horrendous time. After more than 60 years he finally allowed a newsman to interview him and I read the articles.
As I write this on July 3, the day before the 114th anniversary of our father's birth, my wish is that my father would have known this, too.

THE FOLLOWING ARE excerpts from a five-part newspaper series that was written and published during the month of June, 2006, by Mr. James Wesley.

"Having developed an interest in science and medicine while in high school, Reed decided he wanted to be a Marine combat medic. By definition it is one of the most dangerous jobs in the Marine Corps. When a Marine is wounded in combat and other Marines are ducking for cover, it is the Corpsman who stands up, under fire, and makes his way to the wounded man."
"Of the fourteen other student corpsmen who shared a barracks with him, only Reed and one other man would survive the war."
"In training, Reed would learn the lifesaving skills he needed to keep wounded men alive. He would also train alongside Marine riflemen, learning combat tactics. 'When you were attacked on one of those islands,' Reed said, ' you had better know how to fight back. The Japanese took no prisoners'."
(The article continues).."Marine doctrine has always stressed teamwork, discipline, brotherhood, and the intangible quality of pride known as esprit de corps. the Marine creed says Every Marine is your brother and you will fight for your brother Marines; you will train and sweat and bleed with them without complaining and you will stand like a rock."
"After training Reed shipped out to the South Pacific. (He first landed on the island of New Britain and fought a fierce battle for Aogiri Ridge.) At night, the Marines slept in brief periods or not at all. Night was when the Japanese infiltration came. If they found the hole you were crouched in they might toss in a grenade, or jump in beside you and slash you to death."
"On a dark night a Japanese made the mistake of jumping into Reed's foxhole. Reed got a bayonet in the leg and his opponent died of lead poisoning."
"You learned to go 36 hours without sleep, eat cold food from a can in the pouring rain, and share your last drink of fresh water with your buddy."
"You fought the chills and fever of malaria because by now most Marines had it." (After nearly four months of combat the battle weary Marines were relieved by the U. S. Army's 40th Infantry. They left the island for a well deserved rest.) "Their uniforms were ragged and their emaciated bodies were racked with malaria. They had jungle rot in their feet and a holow look in their eyes. They needed hot food, deep sleep, clean clothes, hot showers and medicine. They also needed replacements." (For four months they recuperated and trained the new replacements on the island of Pavuvu, the place was a morass of mud, the mosquitoes were bad and the entire island smelled of rotten coconuts."
(On to Pelillu) "On the 15th of September, 1944 Reed climbed into an amtracs bobbing alongside his troopship. He would be in the second wave of assault troops to hit the beach. Reed glanced over the side. The first wave had made it to shore, but the aerial and naval bombardments obscured the beach."
"Reed checked his weapon and his gear. Along with the rest of his equipment Reed carried a Corpsman's "Unit 3" bag. It held injectible morphine, wound dressings, packages of an anti-infect powder call sulfanilamide to be sprinkled into gaping wounds, and other items. With tracer bullets streaking past their heads, Reed and his comrades leapt from their amtrac and dove for cover."
"The first thing Reed realized about Pelelieu was that there was not enough dirt to dig a foxhole. The Marines fragmented into groups and took cover behind piles of sharp coral rocks."
"By noon the temperature on the island had climbed to a scorching 119 degrees......and no Marine had more water than the two canteens on his belt. Reed could see that dehydration was going to be a major problem, especially with the wounded."
"But it would be almost 3 days before Reed's group would be able to break out of their tiny position ont he rocks.....casualties from heat prostration would equal those from gunshot wounds."
"Reed had been incredibly lucky in the battle so far, and then his luck ran out. Reed was wounded by a mortar round. Lying in a ditch during an attack, a shell impacted almost on top of him. He got shrapnel in his stomach and in the back of his head, along with a severe concussion.....he awakened on a hospital ship. He was also deaf in one ear. A medical doctor examined Reed and told him there was no way he was returning to Pelelieu."
"As soon as he was able, Reed went "topside" on the ship and found a supply boat headed to Pelelieu. Reed was going straight back into combat, wounds and all. He said casually "I wasn't about to leave my buddies on that island. That was where they were and they were still in combat, so I went back."
"Ultimately, the seizure of the six-mile long island of Pelillu would cost the 1st Marine Division 6,526 casualties. In Reed's own unit....of the original 259 men in his rifle company, exactly 38 walked off the island."
(On to Okinawa) "On Easter Sunday, 1945, the Marines stormed ashore on Okinawa. Reed was back in the maelstrom of combat. Reed remembers that it rained for nineteen days straight."
"Reed's final battle of World War II came on a ridge named Kunishi. It would prove to be a blood-soaked, savage battle for a piece of high ground the Japanese had determined to keep."
"Bullets whined off rocks, grenades flashed in the fog, and the screams of the wounded competed with the rattle of machine gun fire. Reed had to treat the wounded in pouring rain, keep his weapon at the ready, and keep an eye out for Japanese attackers, all at the same time. It was probably the most savage battle that occurred on the island of Okinawa. The Marines took the ridge, but only a fraction of those who walked up walked down."
"Military planners were very grim as they planned the invasion of mainland Japan. They told President Harry Truman that it would be Okinawa all over again, multiplied a hundred times."
"The invasion would not be necessary (atomic bomb). Reed Perilloux probably would not have been allowed to participate in any event. A group of Navy doctors had reviewed his battle injuries; shrapnel wounds to his head and stomach, a bayonet through his leg, a severe concussion, continuation of deafness in one ear, malaria, plus his prior "escape" from the hospital ship at Pelelieu to rejoin his comrades in battle. He was medically released from active duty with an honorable discharge and full combat honors (including two Purple Hearts). It had been a long war for Reed. During his entire service he had only been home a total of five days."
"There is a post-script to this story about Reed's service as a combat Marine. Reed's uncle had served as a Marine in World War I. When Reed enlisted....his uncle passed on to him a small Marine emblem, the eagle, globe and anchor symbol that Marines proudly wear on the front of their service hats. (That same symbol was passed on by Reed to someone who fought in the Korean War, then passed on to someone in the Viet Nam War.) "Marines have a way of passing on a legacy."
"Reed made it back to Montz, Louisiana, on the 23rd of September, 1945, and married his high school sweetheart on October 3."
"He has lived a life of service; to his family, his community and his country. As Americans we owe our freedom to men like Reed, so we say to him simply, "thank you, thank you very much."
You can see him in his Marine uniform taken not too long ago--he still fits in it--at http://www.pbase.com/image/62886388.