A Warriors Long Journey to China

“A Warriors Long Journey to China”
By Vernon B. Bushway Jr.
(This Novel inspired by the life of Edward K. Kraus a Marine Raider)
The time is early 1941 and Edward Karl (Ed) is a Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and is transferred to San Diego California from the China Marines.
Ed is assigned to a new elite group being formed called “Carlson’s Raiders” named after the Commander of the group Lieuteant Colonel Carlson. This new group will be trained in special amphibious operations in rubber boats behind enemy lines.
While stationed at San Diego Ed meets a Navy Nurse Jean Murphy, who is stationed at the North Island Naval Base Hospital. They fall in love, and plan to be married when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaii Islands, on December 7, 1941 and all their plans are changed, and World War II begins.
Carlson’s Raiders are sent to Pearl Harbor to begin special operations throughout the South Pacific against the Japanese forces. Ed’s first mission is aboard the submarine Natutilis, to gather intelligence on the Japanese held island of Butaritari in the Makin Atoll, located in the Gilbert Islands
Later in the year Ed and the rest of the Battalion return to the Makin Atoll and Butaritari aboard two submarines and conduct a brutal campaign to destroy the Japanese’s Sea Plane base and personnel on the island.
Once Ed returns to Pearl Harbor from the Makin Raid, he takes leave and returns to San Diego. Upon his return, he and Jean change their plans regarding their marriage and were married at the Coronado Hotel in San Diego.
Upon Ed’s return from his leave, the Carlson’s Raider Battalion is deployed to the forward supply base, Espirito Santo in the New Hererdies, for new training for their next mission, which is behind enemy lines on the Island of Guadalcanal.
During this thirty-day campaign on Guadalcanal, Ed is wounded and sent back to the hospital in Pearl Harbor, for treatment for his wounds and reconnects with his wife Jean Murphy Karl, who has been transferred from North Island to the hospital in Pearl Harbor.
Ed spends forty-five days recuperating from his wounds and spending time with his new wife. He is then sent back to Espirito Santo to rejoin the Battalion.
Jean, hearing of a new opening in the Silver Stream Naval Hospital in Wellington New Zealand applies for a transfer to Wellington so she may be near her husband a possibly to together, which they do in the city of Noumea in New Caledonia. And later in Wellington New Zealand
The Battalion’s next mission is the invasion of Bougainville, which is the last mission for the Carlson’s Raiders do to all of the four Raider Battalions disbandment in January 1944 and the four Raider Battalions are assigned to the 4th Marine Regiment whereas the 2nd Raider Battalion (Carlson’s Raiders) becomes the 4th Regimental Special Weapons Battalion and later he is assigned to a new formed Marine Division the 6th Marine Division
The next Campaigns Ed is involved in after Guadalcanal are Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Emirau, Guam, Tinian and finally the island of Okinawa.
In August of 1945, the War in the Pacific is over and everyone is ready to go home except the 6th Marine Division, which Ed is a part of and the 1st Marine Division, are deployed to China Occupation to resettle American Prisoners of War, the Japanese are holding and to accept the surrender of Japanese Military Personnel.
The war is not over for Ed, and the 6th Marine Division. Ed and his squad again are now involved in fighting the Chinese Communists who are attacking the Tientsen-Peping railroad supply trains.
Finally, after serving overseas from 1942 to 1946 Ed returns home where he and his wife reunited and settle down to civilian life in their new home on Coronado Island.