Veteran tribute offered for service member who perished in Guadalcanal
U.S. Marine Corps
Eighty years to the day that a young U.S. Marine from Rushsylvania lost his life while leading a valiant bayonet charge in the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Theater of World War II, a group of local residents gathered Wednesday, Nov. 2, in the Rushsylvania Cemetery to pay tribute to this local hero.
Second Lt. Charles J. Kimmel’s remains are not currently at the cemetery, as he was originally buried in the Guadalcanal and the location was not recorded properly.
However, his parents Charles G. and Ella L. Kimmel are laid to rest there. On the top of their shared headstone is a memorial for Charles J. Kimmel, a recipient of the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart for his distinguished service while in command of Third Platoon, Company I, Third Battalion of the Fifth Marines.
Inspired by Kimmel’s brave actions in the face of the enemy at the young age of 24 and his local ties, Rushsylvania native Will Ricketts has conducted research on the U.S. Marine and 1936 Rushsylvania High School graduate, who also had a U.S. Navy Destroyer escort named after him following his death.
Ricketts grew up learning some of the history of Kimmel and other military veterans in Rushsylvania, and also has been inspired through his many visits to the U.S. Air Force Museum with his father, Frank Ricketts, during the past 30 years, beginning at the young age of 6.
He organized the Nov. 2 gathering to remember Second Lt. Kimmel at his parents’ grave site and to dedicate a new U.S. Marines Simper Fidelis marker in his honor. Ricketts read a narrative he wrote about Kimmel, “A Young Marine & His Greyhound,” during the remembrance ceremony.
“An overview of a life that was born, lived, fought and died. You and the others deserved a full life, but you traded those years for your country. After 80 years even though you are still buried in an unmarked grave on Guadalcanal, maybe someday you will be found and will lay next to your parents in the Rushsylvania Cemetery.
“I want to say, it’s time we say welcome home Second Lt. Charles Jack Kimmel. Your memory will be carried by a new generation of Americans and your story is told. Rest In Peace, sir; you are not forgotten.”
The history aficionado also noted that the American Legion Charles J. Kimmel Jr. Post No. 722, Rushsylvania, was named after Kimmel in October 1947. It was active until 1976.
Paying tribute to this service member who paid the ultimate sacrifice was a task placed on Ricketts’ heart, and while conducting the research, he felt a connection to the man who lived many decades before him.
“It’s something that needed to be done. I didn’t know this young man or his family, but I feel like Charles J. Kimmel and the Guadalcanal will be with me for the rest of my life. I would love to visit the memorial site there some day.”
“It’s stories like these that need to be told, with Veterans Day coming up and during the rest of the year as well.”
Connie Brugler was one of the attendees who stopped by the Rushsylvania Cemetery for the ceremony. She said she remembered Charles J.’s father from the bank in town and had other remembrances of his family.
Among those assisting Ricketts with the research efforts and obtaining photos included Mike Gibbs from the Rushsylvania Lions Club and Diane Kramer Roll.
As Ricketts recounted to the attendees at the cemetery:
“Located in the Pacific Ocean is the Solomon Islands, the capital is called Honiara, located on the Island of Guadalcanal, in the city is a lost unmarked grave. In Manila the capital of the Philippines, is the 152 acres of the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial which is the final resting place to 16,859 World War II dead, mostly from operations in New Guinea and the Philippines.
“The rectangular Trani limestone piers located within two large hemicycles are inscribed the Tablets of the Missing containing 36,286 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified, there is a name without a Rosette that belongs to that lost unmarked grave in Honiara. A U.S. Marine who was killed 80 years ago on Nov. 2, 1942.”
Charles Jack Kimmel was born on July 2, 1918, in Rushsylvania. He also had a brother named Robert, who was born in 1921, and served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during the war. Robert moved to California in the late 1940s and he passed away in 1994, the speaker noted.
Charles’s father was a veteran of the Spanish American war. He owned and operated a drug store in Rushsylvania, that he purchased from Dr. Stokes in 1909, running it until 1940. Then working as a cashier at the Rushsylvania bank for many years, Ricketts said.
The Kimmels were members of the Rushsylvania United Methodist Church, located on Rush Street. Charles J. attended Rushsylvania High School and after high school, he would attend and graduate from The Ohio State University prior to his enlistment in the Marine Corps Reserves on Oct. 29, 1941, in Nashville, Tenn., where he was assigned active duty the same day.
“On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 news of the attack on Pearl Harbor spread throughout the town,” Ricketts said. “My great uncle Elmer Breeze from Rushsylvania was on board the USS West Virginia BB-48 that morning, witnessing the Arizona explode and survived that attack.
“That evening while attending a church service at the Methodist church, Marvin Kerns said that his father James told him years ago that some of the younger guys were a bit shook up, including Charles. That shock didn’t last long though, Charles would pack his bags and bid farewell to his family, friends and town.”
On Jan. 30, 1942, he was honorably discharged in order to accept appointment as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corp Reserve, he accepted that appointment Jan. 31 at Marine barracks’ in Quantico, Va.
Second Lt. Kimmel would also join the Reserves Officers Class, Marine Corps School in Quantico, Va. Then April 5, he joined “I” Company of the 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force in New River North Carolina, Ricketts said.
May 17 at First Base Depot in Norfolk, Va, he embarked aboard the USS Wakefield AP-21, known as the Ocean Liner SS Manhattan before being delivered to the Navy for operation under the bareboat charter on June 14, 1941. They would sail out on May 20, 1942.
“Charles Jack Kimmel, that Rushsylvania boy ,would never again step foot on American soil,” Ricketts said.
June 14, the USS Wakefield arrived at Wellington, New Zealand. July 15, Kimmel was appointed as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. They sailed out of Wellington and arrived in in the British Solomon Islands July 29.
“Aug. 7, 1942, Second Lt. Kimmel would leave the USS Fuller for a Higgins boat in Iron Bottom Sound. Landing on Beach Red, they had arrived at Guadalcanal; it was the first offensive ground action of the Pacific campaign,” Ricketts recounted.
From Aug. 7-31, Kimmel participated in action against the enemy on Guadalcanal, and from Sept. 1-30, he served as a company officer with I/3/5.
On the fateful day of Nov. 2, 1942, during the Matanikau River Engagement campaign, the 5th Marines enveloped a strongpoint at the base of Point Cruz.
“They would encounter a stubborn group of Japanese firing from trenches, supported by artillery,” Ricketts said. “Lt. Kimmel of I Company was crouched in the middle of a bunch of Marines from I and K companies. Staring down into a coconut grove, he jumped up and yelled, ‘Those guys in 1st Battalion are getting murdered by that 75 out there, we need to give ‘em some relief. Who wants to help me knock out that gun?’
“The CO of I Company Captain Wells gave his approval. Kimmel said, ‘Okay, fix bayonets and when I say charge, just run at them like your pants are on fire.’
“A few seconds later, close to 100 Marines formed in a ragged line. Yelling like a bunch of lunatics, they took off like crazy toward the Japanese lines 40 to 50 yards away. Second Lt. Charles J Kimmel of I/3 was credited with inspiring and leading a bayonet charge. During the hand-to-hand melee at the climax of the fight, he was shot in the chest and killed at the age of 24 years and 4 months old.”
The hand-to-hand combat and bayonet charges would allow the Marines to break though enemy strong points in the lines, Ricketts explained. The Battle of Guadalcanal ended in victory for the U.S. on Feb. 9, 1943.
According to Kimmel’s Purple Heart medal: “As a result of his daring spirt and inspiring leadership, the enemy was completely routed, and the company’s objective attained. His actions always were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave up his life in the service of his country.”
On Dec. 1, 1943, Ricketts reports a keel for a new Navy destroyer escort nicknamed Greyhound was laid down by the Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard in Hingham, Mass. Jan. 15, 1944, the Charles J. Kimmel DE-584 was christened and launched. The Destroyer Escort was sponsored by his mother, Mrs. Ella Kimmel, who would also christen it.
April 20, 1944, it was commissioned by Lt. Commander F.G Storey Jr. USNR in command. After service in the Atlantic and Pacific Campaigns, the ship arrived in San Diego on Dec. 18, 1945. It was decommissioned on Jan. 15, 1947, in San Diego, after two years and nine months of service.
On June 30, 1968, it was struck from the NVR and on Nov. 13, 1969, exactly 27 years and 11 days since her namesake fell on Guadalcanal, the USS Charles J. Kimmel DE 584 would be sunk as a target ship off the coast of California.
A U.S. flag that flew over that ship did come home to Rushsylvania, Ricketts said. It is on display at the Rushsylvania Lions Club.