Last surviving veteran of company fulfills promise to his fellow Marines

By John O’Sullivan

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    ST. LOUIS (KMOV) — Earlier this month, World War II veteran Charlie Kohler made it to a major milestone in his life and he celebrated his 100th birthday.

“I made it through a tough time of my life, the war years and getting out of that it was a job, and we did it and here I am 100 years old, and I don’t know what to do with that 100 years, it went so fast,” remembered Charlie.

Charlie was just out of high school when the United States entered the war.

“I was coming back from a hunting trip in my early teens, 20’s when we got to St. Charles, you could turn on the radio, you couldn’t get a signal before that and the first thing we heard was the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I said, ‘Do you know where Pearl Harbor is?’ and neither one of us knew but we soon found out.”

After reading stories about the heroic actions of U.S. Marines during the Battle of Wake Island that took place the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Charlie decided to enlist in the Marines rather than be drafted into the Army.

“That’s why I got in the Marines, I wanted to be that kind of guy,” said Charlie.

Charlie became a member of the 23rd regiment of the 4th Marine Division. During his training, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton. It was there that the members of his company made a promise to each other: that the last two men alive, would find each other later in life, enjoy a bottle of wine together and toast to those who died before them.

Charlie’s regiment fought in the Pacific, first Kwajalein, then Saipan, Tinian, and finally landing on the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima.

Under heavy bombardment, Charlie and other members of his company hunkered down in a shell crater, but just as Charlie crawled to the top to look out, a mortar shell landed in that crater and killed everyone but not Charlie. He was badly wounded and began crawling back to the beach head when he was hit again by enemy shrapnel.

It was then that another member of his company, Glenn Moose, found Charlie bleeding out, took off his belt, and tightened that belt around Charlie’s leg as a makeshift tourniquet and had it not been for that, Charlie would have bled out and died.

On Saturday, Aug. 7, Charlie’s son, Keith, and the rest of Charlie’s family and friends gathered to celebrate his father’s 100th birthday. But there were other special guests also set to attend the party.

“I cannot begin to tell you how lucky I am because my dad was left for dead on Iwo Jima and the son of the man, the Marine who saved my dad’s life is here,” said Keith Kohler.

Keith recently found the son of Glenn Moose and during the 100th birthday celebration, Dave Moose got to meet Charlie for the first time. As Dave described, Charlie just kept “repeating that Glenn Moose saved my life on Iwo Jima.”

Dave’s father, Glenn, had also been in that crater but had crawled out just before the mortar hit.

“How much Charlie gives credit to my dad saving his life, that was new to me, I really did not know that,” said Dave.

While the 100th birthday of a World War II veteran is for sure something to celebrate, that was not the only reason behind the recent festivities, that reason goes back to 1943.

“The promise that my dad is fulfilling is 78 years ago at Camp Pendleton, he and his fellow Marines, 193 of them, all swore to a promise that the last two of them alive would somehow find themselves late in life and toast to all the other marines who had passed away before them,” said Keith.

After extensive research, Keith concluded that his father was the last member of his company left alive.

“I’m the last, the last, the rest of them are all gone, so we are going to cheers them, cheers them all,” said Charlie.

Before the toast, with an honor guard of Marines in dress uniforms, Keith read off all the names of the rest of Charlie’s company, but even though he was the last, Charlie would not toast alone.

Along with Dave Moose, Charlie celebrated with friends and family of the 23rd regiment from across the country as they held the fulfillment of the promise on Facebook Live.

As for the emotional celebration Charlie said, “I can’t believe it. I have so many good friends and I’m lucky, just a lucky guy that’s what it is.”

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