Worth a read! SEMPER PARATUS!
Remarks at the September 27, 2010 Ceremony in Cle Elum, Washington Honoring Douglas Munro by Doug Sheehan, CDR, USCGR Retired 
Viewed is the official site honoring Signalman First Class Douglas Munro in Cle Elum, Wash. on Sept. 27, 2010, the anniversary of Munro's death. (USCG photo by PA3 Jamie Bigelow) Thank you all for coming. You have all done the right thing to take the time to attend this ceremony today.
I have been attending ceremonies honoring my uncle for 60 years, and I would like to share my perspective with you today on this particular ceremony, and how it came to be. We first conducted this ceremony on September 27, 1999, and it was a very special day. Before I can tell you about it, I need to set the stage to describe what had happened for many years before.
Many of you have only known a Coast Guard where Douglas Munro is a household name. It wasn't always like this. When I attended Coast Guard Officer Candidate School in 1969, there was no mention of him anywhere in the curriculum. There were a number of people who certainly knew about him, and they drove events like the naming of Munro Hall at the Academy, Munro Hall at Cape May, the creation of the statue at Cape May, and a number of other events. However, most people in the Coast Guard were focused on the mission at hand, and the Coast Guard's history, heritage and traditions were not something that people spent0. a lot of time on. Many of you remember the exhibit in Munro Hall at Cape May, but it may surprise you to know that the exhibit was only dedicated in 1999, only about a month after the first of these ceremonies here in Cle Elum.
In 1982, I attended a ceremony in Winterhaven, Florida for the 40th anniversary of the Guadalcanal Campaign. I was a Lieutenant Commander in the Coast Guard Reserve, and I was escorting my Grandmother, who was the guest of honor. It was particularly memorable to me, because it was the first and only time in my life when I met face to face with Admiral Dwight Dexter, who was my Uncle's commanding officer at Guadalcanal. I had known of him for most of my life, and I knew that he had written that famous letter to my Grandmother after Douglas Munro was killed. You may have seen the letter at the Coast Guard Museum in Seattle. He gave me his personal log from Guadalcanal, and I still treasure it to this day. I said to him 'Admiral, I have wanted to ask you a question that has bothered me for many, many years, and I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to ask you about it. I am well aware of how much paperwork it takes to get anything done in the Coast Guard, and our substantial bureaucracy. In 1942, you were on a tiny, little Coast Guard base on Guadalcanal, over 10,000 miles from most Coast Guard units. So, I have to ask you: Where did you find the form to recommend my Uncle for the Medal of Honor?' He just smiled and chuckled. He said 'You know, all I ever did was write that letter to your Grandmother' (as if that was a little thing). He always suspected that his yeoman made a copy of the letter and gave it to the Marines. They didn't have copy machines in those days, so it meant that the yeoman had to re-type the letter. That was the only explanation he could think of for the letter being quoted in the documentation for the Medal of Honor. A few people simply decided to do the right thing.
In 1998, I was in New London, Connecticut for the dedication of the monument honoring the men who served on the APA's during World War II. The APA's were troop transports that were manned by the Coast Guard, and one of them was the Hunter Ligget. My uncle was assigned to that ship, and his picture is engraved on the monument. One of the speakers at the ceremony was Vince Patton, the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard. He told a story about attending a military dinner in New York in his dinner dress uniform. He sat next to a corporal in the Marine Corps, who thought Vince was a master chief in the Navy. Vince corrected him, and said 'No, I am a master chief in the Coast Guard'. The corporal perked up, and said 'The Coast Guard!!! that is Douglas Munro's service.' He then spent about 5 minutes telling Vince the story of how Douglas Munro saved the lives of 500 Marines at Guadalcanal. Vince said how impressed he was with how well he had told the story, but said: 'I have to ask: how do you know that story so well?' The marine said 'They teach us that story at Marine Corps boot camp. Douglas Munro saved the lives of Marines, so as far as we are concerned, he is one of us. Besides, the Coast Guard used to be the Revenue Marine. And once a Marine, always a Marine!!!!”
That's when Vince realized that the Marines knew the story of Douglas Munro better than the Coast Guard knew it, so he set out to change that. When he became the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, he announced that his theme and focus for his 4 year tour as the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard would be to get people to focus more on the History, Heritage and Traditions of the Coast Guard. His message caught on like wildfire, particularly among the Chiefs in the Coast Guard. Master Chief [Dave] Evans at Cape May decided to create the exhibit in Munro Hall to tell the story to all the new recruits in Coast Guard Boot Camp. He set out to raise the money needed for the exhibit, and Vince asked my Mom for as many pictures as she could find, that they could use for the exhibit. She probably sent them over 100 pictures, and the planning began in early 1999 to create the museum quality exhibit.
Sometime in the spring of 1999, the phone rang in the Coast Guard District Office in Seattle. A Coast Guard man answered the phone, and the man on the other end of the line said: 'My name is Mike Cooley, and I am the post commander of the VFW post in Cle Elum, Washington. I was wondering of the Coast Guard could pay to install a light in the Cemetery in Cle Elum at the gravesite of Douglas Munro. If we had a light, then I would not have to raise and lower the flag, here at the cemetery, every day, because the light would shine on the flag. I'm 82 years old, and I won't be able to do this much longer. And after I am gone, I doubt that anyone else will do this.' The Coast Guard man asked: 'How long have you been doing this?' Mike calmly said: 40 years. Every day, rain or shine, he raised the flag in the morning, and took it down at night. He had come home from World War II alive, and he knew that his boyhood friend, Douglas Munro had not. He simply decided that it was the right thing to do to honor his friend by taking on this task. This story spread immediately among the Chiefs in the District Office, and it appeared in the Seattle Times. The Chiefs got together and called Vince Patton in Washington, DC, and they all said 'guys, we have to do something!!!!' They immediately started raising money and started planning to install the light. The city of Cle Elum heard about this and said: 'We need to create a memorial to all the men and women of Cle Elum who have served in our nations wars and put it in the cemetery.' Dozens of volunteers started working on these projects, and it was decided to dedicate everything together on September 27, 1999, the anniversary of my uncle's death. The one sad thing was that Mike Cooley died about a month before that ceremony. However, he died knowing that everything was well underway, and that his request was going to be honored. Later, his ashes were placed in the gravesite with my uncle, my grandmother, and my grandfather, which was the right thing to do. There is a beautiful plaque honoring Mike Cooley over there on the gravesite.
The ceremony was wonderful. There were 700 people here. The schools in Cle Elum let their students out early that day so that they could attend the ceremony. Vince Patton was here, as was Master Chief Evans from Cape May, and a representative of the Coast Guard cutter Munro. The Marine Corps sent a drill team. The mayor of Cle Elum was here, and many people from this wonderful community. The main speaker was Admiral [Paul] Blaney, who was the District Commander in Seattle. He gave a wonderful speech that told of my Grandmother's service in the Coast Guard after my Uncle's death in World War II. I went up to talk to him for a few minutes before the ceremony. He was clearly a little upset about something, and he said: ' I tried to tell them that they didn't have enough chairs!!!' There were about 50 chairs over there. I told him that I didn't think anyone was concerned about that, and I don't think anyone had any idea there would be so many people here. He said that he had assigned a project officer to the ceremony. You probably realize that Admirals like to assign a lieutenant JG as a project officer to make sure that all the i's are dotted and t's crossed for a ceremony like this. He said that about 5 chiefs all came into his office shortly after he assigned the project officer, and said 'Admiral, we really appreciate all your support of this ceremony, but could you please butt out, because this is our ceremony!!!!' He said: 'So that's what I had to do!!! He told the project officer to stand down.
The point of all these stories is that it is wonderful when people simply decide to do the right thing. The Chief Petty Officer's Association of Seattle decided to make it their mission to make sure that this gravesite is taken care of, and that people remember to honor the history, heritage and traditions of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard enlisted association has now joined them in that mission. In particular, we all want to remember someone who demonstrated the core values of the Coast Guard, at least as well as anyone ever has.
So as you have lunch with your shipmates over the next year, and stand watch with them, please tell them about this ceremony. Tell them that at least one time in their Coast Guard career, they should attend this ceremony. It is the right thing to do.
