William Curtis Logan hailed from Clay Center, Kansas, and joined the Marine Corps in January 1942. He was a skilled marksman, and after boot camp he remained in San Diego as a rifle range coach. Logan spent the first half of his four-year Regular hitch teaching boots how to shoot, but in early 1944 received orders that sent him overseas. He caught up with C/1/24th Marines at Camp Maui, and was assigned duty with a machine gun squad.
Bill saw action as an ammo carrier, a gunner, and a squad leader on Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. He managed to escape serious injury, but never forgot the sights he saw or the buddies he lost on the islands. On 14 August 1945 – VJ Day – he sat down to write a letter to his wife, Nola. Instead of “jumping and hollering and raising the devil,” Bill contemplated his good luck and thought about his missing friends.
Letter and album pages provided by Brad Logan.
Cpl. W. C. Logan
C-1-24-4th Div
August 14 1945
My Darling,
Well, today is the day I guess we’ll always remember. The end of the war with Japan. I thought I’d be jumping and hollering and raising the devil, but I don’t feel any different. If anything, I feel sort of sad. I keep thinking of the guys that can’t celebrate with us. The guys with no legs or arms. Nola, I have so much to be thankful for. I’ve thanked God that I am still alive and too that I have the sweetest and bravest wife in the world. I love you, Nola.
Have a big parade & review tomorrow. Better hit the sack as I have to shake a leg in the morning.
No mail, Baby. See you tomorrow.
All my love
Bill
Bill Logan collected signatures from his buddies at Camp Maui. Several of the men here lost limbs, or their lives, on Iwo Jima.
