As a youngster back in Kansas City, Mo., John Wayne was Coupeville resident Ray Myer’s hero.

Myer’s favorite pastime was to go to the nickel theater Saturday mornings with his six-guns, no caps, buckled on his hips. John Wayne’s faithful sidekicks in the theater seats could shoot at the “bad guys” until their trigger fingers were dog-tired. They could rest a bit while John was kissing the pretty girls. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, young men traded in their youth to fight the Japanese or Hitler’s Germany. Like John Wayne, they would shoot the bad guys and wish for pretty girls to kiss. After working in the Civilian Conservation Corps, Ray left for Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command. Next it was Little Creek, Va., for training for the Landing Craft Infantry.

Being trained to identify enemy aircraft bored Ray. Being single, Ray volunteered for a secret program. Loaded on a troop train with window blinds drawn, the train didn’t stop until they reached a U.S.O. in Blue Field, W.V. Army and Navy personnel were assembled into two separate groups at the Amphibious Training Base at Fort Pierce, Fla. For seven and-a-half months of training: to identify, reconnoiter an objective beach, maintain a position prior to a landing, and then guide the assaults in the water and on the beach. These skilled Scouts and Raiders and Underwater Demolition Teams (“naked” warriors) gave birth to the Navy SEALs.

Ray learned the hard way that the term hadn’t meant to be literally naked. The Atlantic Ocean tidelands are populated with treacherous stinging jellyfish, no women, just jellyfish. These jellyfish don’t care what they grab onto as they swim by. After four days and numerous bottles of calamine lotion, Ray finally got the swelling down. This narrative never fails to get laughs at Scouts and Raiders reunions.

The Navy acquired the USS Appalachian (AGC-1) on Feb. 27, 1943. Following the shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay, Capt. James M. Fernald transited the ship through the Panama Canal, north to San Diego before heading for Hawaii. She was the first of three Amphibian Command ships. The USS Blue Ridge and USS Rocky Mountain followed in her wake. Each ship had six crews of six Scouts and Raiders plus their Naval officers. Capt. Fernald, had the cool confidence of John Wayne around the top “brass” or in combat. Ray liked him immediately.

Most of the photographers were filming from planes. Then their film plates were literally dropped off by hook and wire to the deck of the USS Appalachian. The negatives were rapidly developed in the ship’s lab and presented to the “brass” in the War Command Room. Ray describes it as a plush hotel conference room. Twenty-four operators occupied the radio room adjacent to the War Command Room all hours of the day. All incoming reports were on screens constantly, and then utilized to make command decisions.

Among the “brass” on Capt. Fernald’s Amphibian Assault Command Ship were: Rear Adm. Richard L. Connolly, Gen. Roy Stanley Geiger, USMC, who commanded the III Amphibious Corps, and a Gen. Smith, who commanded the Army. They could call for whatever they considered necessary for an invasion: air strikes, aircraft carriers, troop convoys, absolutely anything that they needed for the assaults.

As Capt. Fernald’s Coxswain, Ray seldom performed the tasks for which he was trained. Once Ray piloted Capt. Fernald’s boat into a harbor with a seaplane ramp. On the other side of the concrete seawall was a minefield. The ground was filled with white flags tied on wires. Rear Adm. Connolly may not have realized their purpose or was simply verifying what he thought they might be: a field of identified Japanese bombs that had not detonated on impact. “Operation White Horse” was ordered: the “brass” wanted the minefield cleared and a bridge built across a ravine by 0400. During his mid-watch Ray listened to the radio chatter. By 0400 both tasks were completed.

One day Col. Carl Carlson, of the Marine Raiders, stood on the stern of the battle ship USS California giving the Special Forces orders. “Take prisoners, they aren’t trained in defensive interrogation.” Ray knew that those who could speak Japanese accompanied the Marines on the invasions. Any information was radioed to the command ship. Ironically, upon arriving in Honolulu, Ray had watched Japanese POWs bailing bucket loads of sea and sand from this same battleship. Now the USS California would have her revenge.

The invasion of Roi and Namur Island in the northern part of the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands was successful. Land-based planes from all three services and carrier aircraft piled blows with increased intensity upon the Marshall Islands. Underwater Demolition Teams met the challenge of disarming the teepee-like fortresses that stood sentry duty on the beaches. These “naked” warriors wore only swimsuits, fins, and facemasks on combat operations and saw action virtually on every island in the Pacific.

As the Amphibian Assault and Invasion Command Ship, she remained on the perimeter of the battles. Taking possession of Saipan proved to be more difficult than the “brass” had anticipated. Our tenacious troops on the beaches took the island inch by inch, killing 32,000 Japanese. The casualties were high for our Marines too.

On board the USS Appalachian was an operating room and surgeons, battle weary Marines, with tears in their eyes and a wounded buddy in their arms pleading for a corpsman or doctor to save the life of their trusted companion. But the IVs and bandages wouldn’t be enough. The dead were placed in wire baskets, and then arranged head to foot along the corridors of the ship. They were wrapped in mummy-like fashion until they could be taken ashore safely and buried.

Any plans for taking Guam at this point had to be delayed. The USS Appalachian would have to return to Eniwetok and wait for more trained troops and assault equipment from Hawaii before the invasion of Guam. Ray recalls what you don’t see in the movies or the history books. The wounded: the bodies of America’s finest fighting machines. What remained were bloated bodies and remains that had been bulldozed into craters, mass graves formed by bombs dropped from above. Japanese Prisoners of war had been interrogated then removed.

Burying the dead Japanese was an awful duty. Nor will he forget the horrific cremations done by using massive flamethrowers.

After a deep breath, Ray continued to clarify, “The fathers back home requested that their sons send home pairs of Japanese’ ears to prove that they had been in the thick of the invasions.” Ray was not one who could mutilate any body in such a manner to prove his bravery. But, he didn’t pass judgment on those who did.

He pulled his own wallet out of his back pocket, and paused before recounting the one occasion in which he found a dead body, a clean kill. Ray had intentions of taking a memento from the Japanese wallet to send home. Without a word, Ray flips open his own wallet to the pictures of his own family. He shakes his head indicating that he couldn’t do it, by closing the wallet. Quietly Ray describes the color portrait of his enemy, his wife, and two small children; he knew that he couldn’t take the man’s most prized possession. For Ray’s sensitive nature, just the memory is a deep scar.

As a Scout and Raider, Ray made three invasions: Rio-Namur, Saipan and Guam. On Eniwetok, Ray inspected the landing craft tanks and Navy boats to make sure that their crews had properly maintained them. These boats were carrying food supplies and equipment back to the base. LCTs carried troops. When there was a rash of boats coming in need of repair, Ray discovered these boat crews were using old ammo and grenades for fishing. The ammunition flak was blowing holes in their own boats. Fishing season was officially CLOSED!

After a year on Eniwetok, 1st Class Boatswaine Mate Ray Myers was able to hitch a ride on a Coast Guard troop ship headed for home. Etched in Ray’s memory was the dense indigo fog that swallowed the ship somewhere near San Francisco Bay at 0400.

Cheering broke out below from the mess hall. A young crewman had just won an all night crap game. A mound of $1, $5, $10, $20 and a few $50 bills the size of a bushel basket was being swept up by the winner and stuffed into every cavity of his uniform. Abruptly the speaker system blared out: “Now hear this! Now hear this! Japan has asked for a cease fire!” Those who slept through the announcement were drug out of their bunks swearing that it was a horrible joke, while others made their way to the top deck just in time to see the fog part like velvet curtains and Golden Gate Bridge appeared to welcome our men home from the Pacific.

The next bus would transport this “John Wayne” back to his home in Kansas City, Mo. where he, Ray Myers worked as a civilian until he re-enlisted in 1957.