Charles Renwick Anderson, Jr.
| NAME: Charles Renwick Anderson, Jr. | NICKNAME: Scooter | SERVICE NUMBER: O-29133 | |||||
| HOME OF RECORD: Brule, NE | NEXT OF KIN: Wife, Mrs. Johanna Mae Anderson | ||||||
| DATE OF BIRTH: 3/15/1923 | SERVICE DATES: 4/14/1942 –3/6/1945 | DATE OF DEATH: 3/8/1945 | |||||
| CAMPAIGN | UNIT | MOS | RATE | RESULT | |||
| Iwo Jima | C/1/24 to B/1/24 | 1542 | Second Lieutenant | KIA | |||
| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS: Silver Star, Purple Heart | LAST KNOWN RANK: Second Lieutenant posthumous First Lieutenant | ||||||
Charles Anderson was born in Furnas County, Nebraska, on 15 March 1923. He was the oldest child of Charles Sr. and Mary Alice Anderson, who owned a family farm outside the village of Wilsonville. As Anderson grew older, he attended Wilsonville High School; physics and math were his favorite subjects, he said, but everyone knew that his real interest was athletics. From 1935 to 1939, Anderson earned four letters in football, and an additional two each in track and basketball. His sporting prowess was a frequent feature in the local newspaper, the Wilsonville Review.
After graduating high school in 1939, Anderson turned to higher education. He enjoyed two years at McCook Junior College before enrolling at Nebraska State Teacher’s College in Kearney. Naturally, he became a fixture on the track and football teams. He also met Johanna Muller of Brule, Nebraska; the two students were married in 1942, during their junior year.
Although he was registered with Selective Service, Anderson chose to enlist in the Marine Corps Reserve as an officer candidate. He enlisted on 14 April 1942, but remained on inactive status until the following summer and his college graduation. In 1943, Anderson reported to Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia. He soon earned his commission as a second lieutenant, and after coursework at Reserve Officer’s Class, traveled up to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anderson found himself on a college campus once again – at Harvard, no less – in another classroom. He wrote to his parents that he was studying radio communications; in fact, he was learning to operate a radar set.[1]
However, a career in radar was not in Anderson’s future. He may not have taken to the training, or perhaps he requested a change of station – whatever the reason, Anderson was detached from Harvard in the spring of 1944 and assigned to the 58th Replacement Draft. He traveled across the country, and then across the Pacific with this unit, eventually arriving at Camp Maui in the territory of Hawaii. The camp itself was somewhat empty: the regular occupants, members of the 4th Marine Division, were several thousand miles away and fighting on Saipan. Anderson and a handful of other new lieutenants (including Arthur McGilvray, Marshall Salvaggio, George Burcaw, Albert Mitlehner, and others) were assigned to the Division’s rear echelon, and cooled their heels around Maui until the combat troops returned.
Lieutenant Anderson received his new assignment on 5 September 1944; he reported to Major Horace C. Parks of C/1/24th Marines and was told to take command of the machine gun platoon. Anderson had big shoes to fill – his predecessor, 1Lt. Alexander Santilli, was extremely popular and his death on Saipan was a tough blow to his men. (As a footballer, Anderson had likely heard of “Saint” Santilli’s gridiron exploits at Fordham.) The gunners were a close-knit bunch with strong NCOs, and fully capable of taking care of themselves – which was fortunate, as Anderson had other demands on his time. “Andy didn’t have much time to spend with his men because of his football playing,” wrote Major Parks.[2] The Division was building a championship team, and Anderson made the first string cut.
The “Maui Marines” – the 4th Marine Division’s football squad – was captained by Lt. Col. Leroy “Pat” Hanley, a peacetime coach for Boston University. Although Anderson usually played guard, he ceded the position to a former Green Bay Packer named Lieutenant Howard “Smiley” Johnson, and took the field as a halfback. “How the boys would cheer when he got the ball and began scooting through the opposition,” recalled Parks. “His name throughout the 4th Marine [Division] was ‘Scooter’ Anderson.”[3] The dynamite squad romped through their scheduled season in the fall of 1944, and Anderson made a key play in the finals, helping clobber the Seabee Stingers 51-0. Sports writers regarded the “Maui Marines” as one of the best all-around teams – service, college, or professional – that took the field.
With the season over, Anderson’s focus returned to training. “He developed an excellent platoon,” noted Major Parks. “Naturally the men admired him, not only because he was an outstanding athlete but he knew how to handle men, how to get the most out of their abilities, and was always a gentleman.”[4]
As the year drew to a close, it became more and more evident that another battle was brewing. In early January, amphibious training stepped up in pace and soon the battalion was aboard the USS Hendry and heading west for action. Anderson was being considered for promotion to the rank of first lieutenant, but it is not known if his advancement was made official before 19 February 1945 and the landing on Iwo Jima.[5]
Anderson’s Charlie Company gunners escaped serious losses for the first two days of the battle, but on 22 February 1945 they were put through the ringer. A direct hit on a shell hole wiped out most of a squad, and when Charlie Company called for backup, Anderson witnessed the death of 2Lt. Steven H. Opalenik, one of the battalion’s most popular officers. A war correspondent approached Anderson after the day’s violence to ask about Opalenik’s death, and the young Nebraskan told the tale:
By the time Anderson’s quote hit the newspapers, however, he was also dead – and under similar circumstances.
On 27 February 1945, Anderson was ordered to report to Captain William A. Eddy, Jr., of Baker Company. “One of our companies needed a lieutenant for one of their rifle platoons,” wrote Major Parks. “Andy was chosen and sent to Company B. His work was not only outstanding, but it was a great inspiration to his men. At that time we were engaged in the hardest fighting of the campaign. The going was not too tough for Andy. He was always leading his men toward the enemy, directing their fire and continually encouraging them.”[7]
Anderson led his adopted platoon through combat in Iwo Jima’s “Meat Grinder” and into the hills on the far side. On 6 March 1945, when his men encountered yet another strong Japanese fortification, Anderson lost his temper. He grabbed a few volunteers, moved around the Japanese flank, and charged the emplacement. Three Japanese soldiers fell dead and other scattered as Anderson rampaged his way across the position. Unfortunately, his attack drew the attention of enemy spotters. A shell exploded nearby, sending a piece of shrapnel into “Scooter” Anderson’s neck and inflicting a mortal wound.
“He was immediately rushed to the hospital by one of our own Battalion Surgeons,” Major Parks wrote to Johanna Anderson. “He was operated on at once by one of the most skilled surgeons in this Division. Next he was taken to a hospital ship where his condition was pronounced as good. A day or so later, we received the unexpected and very sad news that he had passed away.”[8] Anderson died aboard the USS Samaritan on 8 March 1945, and his body sent ashore for burial in Plot 1, Row 25, Grave 1234 of the 4th Marine Division Cemetery. His Silver Star Medal and citation were delivered to Johanna at home in Brule.
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Second Lieutenant Charles R. Anderson, Jr. (MCSN: 0-29133), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Leader of a Rifle Platoon of Company B, First Battalion, Twenty-Fourth Marines, FOURTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 6 March 1945. Determined to break the fierce resistance of hostile forces deeply entrenched in a ridge to the front of his advancing company, Second Lieutenant Anderson voluntarily led an attack upon the left flank of the Japanese position. Taking the enemy by surprise, he personally accounted for three Japanese dead and, fighting furiously in close combat, succeeded in overrunning the emplacement. Although fatally wounded, Second Lieutenant Anderson, by his dauntless courage, inspiring leadership and aggressive fighting spirit had rendered valiant service in the seizure of a vital objective and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Today, Charles Anderson is buried in Brule Cemetery – near Johanna, who passed away in 1966.
Iwo Jima cost the “Maui Marines” thirteen men from the championship team – one missing, eight wounded, and four killed in action.
1. Muster rolls for the Marine Barracks, Navy Yard Boston, list Anderson as “under instruction at Naval Training School (Pre-Radar), Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. However, obituaries for Anderson state he was studying radio communications. It is likely that Anderson was told not to divulge the nature of his studies, as radar was new and rather secret technology at the time.
2. “Lieutenant’s Major Writes To Mrs. Anderson,” The Wilsonville Review, 12 July 1945.
3. Ibid
4. David Sears, “Ghost Team of Island X,” Naval History Magazine vol. 29, no. 1 (February 2015). Online edition.
5. Anderson’s rank on battalion muster rolls for the entirety of his service shows “Second Lieutenant” with no noted corrections. However, casualty documents and further correspondence indicate he was a first lieutenant. This discrepancy even resulted in a grave marker being improperly marked with the lower rank. While the promotion may have been posthumous, his final official Marine Corps rank is First Lieutenant.
6. “Steve Brodie Is Killed,” The Kansas City Star, 25 March 1945.
7. “Lieutenant’s Major Writes To Mrs. Anderson,”
8. Ibid.
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I am 66 years old and I did not know all of this about my uncle Charles. My father (who served in the Navy in WW2 told me that he was killed as he was expecting the lc.
I was born within two weeks of the five year anniversary of his death.