I'll keep digging around; I've got more Guadalcanal material in the office.

But I want to be very clear here, gentlemen. I am *not* suggesting that he wasn't on Guadalcanal. I just haven't been able to locate a reference to his service there. Most of the historians I've cited limit their accounts to staff rosters (movers and shakers), with the exception of the colorful anecdote. There is a 1 MAR DIV roster (completed upon the division's boarding transports in San Francisco) in the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. I do not believe that it is complete, and though I looked at it, I took no notes.

The other locations engraved on the frame (Cape Torokina, Moromakina, and Piva Forks) are all sites of engagements during the landings and defense of the beach heads on Bougainville during the battle of Empress Augusta Bay, in November, 1943.

The Marines of that era in the Pacific war were not invariably delighted with their issued sidearm, the 1911A1 (the 1 MAR DIV records attest to this repeatedly). Roettinger was almost certainly in good company carrying a personal revolver during the New Guinea campaign.

I'll keep looking as time allows.

Cheers!

CHandos Michael Brown