US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

424 Amphibians Canze To Conquer
vide CUB One with the aviation personnel set up in the allowance list would
have required stripping personnel from all available sources. It was the first
indication to me that I had command of a paper tiger.
At about this time a radio order from COMSOPAC was received to
establish a base at Espiritu Sante. COMCUBONE was an action addressee.
I got a despatch from Kelly Turner to go up to Guadalcanal on the fast
transports-Hugh Hadley’s ships [Transport Division 12]. I gave him
machine guns from CUB One to mount on his ships. I took some doctors . . .
communicators and pay clerk and the CO of Seabee Battalion Six [Lieutenant
Commander Paul Blundon (CEC)USNR]. On 27 August 1942, I embarked
for Guadalcanal and arrived 29 August. . . . My people were scared. Everybody
was scared. I set up my headquarters near Henderson Field where the
earlier elements of CUB One had been established.
We moved our camp after the shelling of the airfield, toward the beach.
[Later to be at Lever Brothers plantation house on the co;lstal lagoon
between Lunga Point and Kukum.]
The Seabees had most of their equipment on a civilian ship, the S~])taAlla,
a Grace Line Ship. I sent a despatch to Kelly Turner to have the SS Sa~~taAria,
the ship I thought best suited for tie Guadalcanal situation, to come to
Guadalcanal but he thought no civilian manned ships should go up at that
time.
The Seabees aided the building and repair work at Henderson Field and
my aviation personnel acted as ground crews and fueled the planes. Aviation
gas drum storage records were kept and with this information, I was the only
one in Guadalcanal that really knew [the amount of] gasoline available.
My unit gradually took over Island Communications. We, plus Dexter’s
original outfit, operated landing craft, housed units such as Black Cats, transients,
and maintained a base at Tulagi.
My job personally as I saw it when I first arrived was to be useful around
the airfield. The overriding mission was the defense of CACTUS [Guadalcanal]
.47
Rear Admiral Turner expected the skipper of CUB One to start building
an Advanced Naval Base as soon as possible and this required him to
develop a specific plan for the Guadalcanal-Tulagi area soon after his
arrival.
On 23 August 1942 Rear Admiral Turner wrote to Major General Vande-
grift:
Commander Compton, who is the Commanding Officer of CUB One, will
probably move into CACTUS within a few days on the lVi/lianz ~ar~
lkrvzw [AP-6]. If you and he will plan the development which is needed
there, and send out your recommendations, we will do the best we can to
‘7(a) Compton; (b) C/S COMPHIBFORSOPAC to RKT, Memorandum of 26 Aug. 1942.