Wesley McCoy Platt, son of Wilkie W. Platt and Bertha L. Murray, was born May 26, 1914 in Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina. He graduated from Summerville High School and graduated with honors from Clemson University in 1935 where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, Blue Key, Scabbard and Blade, Beta Sigma Chi, and the Central Dance Association.
Wesley was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Marines. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade in or near Shanghai, China in 1938 and 1939, and then assigned to the 1st Defense Battalion, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Four months before the Japanese attack, he was sent to Wake Island, a horseshoe shaped atoll comprised of three small Islands, Wake, Wilkes, and Peale, located about 2000 miles west of Hawaii.
By December, 1941 he was Captain Platt, second in command of the Marine Detachment, First Defense Battalion, Wake Island, and the strong point commander on Wilkes Island. He was well respected by his men. Cpl. John S. Johnson described him as "a good man and the very epitome of an officer and a gentleman… The more familiar you became with him, the more you respected him." PFC Robert E. Shores added, " He'd get right in there with you….He might not stay there all the time, but he wasn't too good to take one of them shovels or one of those sandbags or whatever… That's the reason we liked him. We'd have done anything for Captain Platt." It was said his men would follow him in to hell and have fun doing it.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Five hours later they bombed Wake Island. The bombing continued for four days before the Japanese attempted their first invasion, on Dec. 11th. The invasion force consisted of "three light cruisers, six destroyers and two transports carrying an Imperial Marine detachment." The Marine Defense Battalion repulsed the invasion without allowing a single invader to reach shore. In the process, they sunk two destroyers, the Hayate and Kisaragi, two destroyer-transports, and damaged two light cruisers and three others ships. "The 450 Marines on Wake thus earned the noble distinction of being the only force in the entire war to defeat an amphibious assault." But their victory did not stop the daily bombing of the island.
Capt. Platt was known for his dry wit. Pfc Max J. Dana (at his machine gun post on Wilkes on Dec. 13th) recalled hearing an exchange between the Marine commander, Major James Devereux, and Capt Platt concerning famous band leader Kay Kyser who had dedicated a song to the men on Wake. "Hey, Captain, we had a song dedicated to us on the radio. Kay Kyser on his program dedicated a song to the Wake Island Marines." Adding some comic relief to their precarious situation, Capt. Platt replied, "What did they play, Taps?"
Before dawn on Dec. 23, 1941, and after 12 days of punishing bombardment, the second Japanese invasion attempt landed soldiers on the beaches on Wake and Wilkes Islands. On Wilkes, Captain Platt and his men were ready. They wiped out the Japanese force that landed there. "On Wilkes Island, 70 Marines, armed with little more than vintage 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles and hand grenades, set one transport on fire, and trapped the landing Japanese on the beach. Four hours later, that landing had been defeated, but on Wake Island itself, two hundred Marines faced hundreds of Imperial Marines."
While the battle on Wilkes Island was being won, Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, U.S.N., the atoll commander, out of contact with Wilkes, surrendered to the Japanese on Wake Island. Several hours later, Capt. Platt and his victorious Marines were moving from Wilkes to reinforce Wake and continue the counterattack when Major Devereux, bearing a white flag and accompanied by the Japanese commander, intercepted Capt. Platt and ordered him and his men to surrender. In a tense scene, Capt. Platt, leading the charge with two .45 pistols and his Marines behind him, confronted the Major, yelling "Who the hell gave that order?" Witnesses reported a heated debate with Platt fuming: "Marines don't surrender, Major. Let us die right here." and Devereux replying, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. This is an order. You will surrender." Moments later, Platt threw his pistols to the ground, saying, "___!" The Marines' singular victory on Wilkes Island was in vain, overshadowed by the surrender.
Post war analyses of the Battle for Wake estimated that only 250 to 300 invaders were still alive when the Marines were ordered to surrender. Overall, the Japanese were believed to have lost 1,500 men or more in taking Wake Island, at least 13 killed for every American lost.
The first Presidential Unit Citation of World War II, personally signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went to the defenders of Wake Island and included the statement: "The courageous conduct of the officers and men who defended Wake Island ... will not be forgotten so long as gallantry and heroism are respected and honored."
The prisoners of war from Wake Island were first taken to Yokohama, Japan on the Nitta Maru and then to the Woosung prison camp near Shanghai, China, arriving there Jan. 24, 1942. The month long voyage was a living hell. They were told, "You will be treated worse than Japanese soldier because you have no honor." Disobeying any one of twelve specific orders would be punished by death. In the manner of bushido, all were beaten unmercifully to teach them humility and to accept subordination. In the most gruesome event on the Nitta Maru, five men were selected for special punishment. In an on deck execution in front of 150 guards, the guard commander read the death sentence in Japanese, "You have killed many Japanese soldiers in battle. For what you have done, you are now going to be killed - for revenge. You are here as representatives of your American soldiers and will be killed. You can now pray to be happy in the next world - in heaven." It was not translated for the men to understand. They were then blindfolded, made to kneel, ceremonially beheaded, their bodies used for bayonet practice and then thrown overboard.
At one point, to set an example for violating the no talking rule, Capt. Platt, was severely beaten with a club. When he would not cry out, the Japanese struck him harder. Platt gritted his teeth, taking the rest of the beating in silence. Afterward, officers remembered that Platt, still bleeding from the mouth, told them, "Twarn't nothing." Even so, witnesses said Platt was visibly shaken by the severity of this beating. Well after the war, Lt John F. Kinney wrote, "The manner in which Capt Platt withstood this punishment set an excellent example of resistance for the rest of us to follow during our period of captivity. We must never give in. We must always show our enemies that we were stronger - at least in spirit - than they were."
The three years spent in Woosung prison were not much better.
In 1945, Capt. Platt and other prisoners were moved from China through Manchuria and Korea to prison camp Hakodate #4, Japan, and held there until the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. The camp roster listed: "Platt, Wesley M., Capt, 05130, USA, USMC, 1st Def Bn, Wake"
"Given Up for Dead, America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island" by Bill Sloan gives an in depth account of the battle for Wake Island and the fates of the American military and civilians taken as prisoners of war.
Captain Platt returned to the United States in September 1945 and served in Charleston, South Carolina, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
On Aug. 5, 1946 in the Marine Corps Chapel at Quantico, Lt. Col. Wesley McCoy Platt married Jane Avery Price, widow of Capt. Thomas Edwin Reagan, U.S. Army, killed in Europe in World War II. Wesley adopted their son, Thomas Edwin, Jr., who was severely stricken with polio. He spent many months personally giving physical therapy to Thomas. Because of Wesley's efforts, Thomas learned to walk.
From October 1946 to July 1947, Lt. Col. Platt was the Commanding Officer the 4th Marines at the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Wesley and Jane's daughter Valerie Jane was born in 1947.
In 1948 he was reassigned to Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington, Virginia where he was promoted to Colonel in January 1951. Four months later, Col. Wesley McCoy Platt was ordered to Korea. He left Jane, Thomas, 8, and, Valerie, 4, in Falls Church, Va. to await his return.
In Korea, Colonel Platt was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division. On 27 September, 1951, in combat with North Korean and Chinese forces in the "Punch Bowl" in Kangwon province, he was mortally wounded while crossing a bridge when his jeep was hit by an artillery shell. He died at age 37, the highest ranking Marine to be killed in action in Korea.
The colonel's body was returned to Virginia and buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 11, 1952 with full military honors. His funeral cortege included his bier pulled by six white horses following a company of Marines. Fifty years after his death, Jane was buried beside him.
Colonel Platt's awards and decorations include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with Wake Island Clasp, China Service Medal, American Defense Medal, Asian - Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal (Korea).
In other honors: the parade ground at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, Hawaii, is named Platt Field; a bridge in Korea is named the Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt Bridge; and the Veterans Service Center in Charleston, West Virginia, is named for him.
On April 22, 2011, Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt was honored in a flag re-folding ceremony held at the Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center (RSLC) in Charleston, West Virginia. The Colonel's funeral flag, donated by Ms. Valerie Platt Aulbert, the Colonel's daughter, is now displayed in the Col. Wesley McCoy Platt Service Center, opened in 2008 by the RSLC to provide services to veterans in need.
[Compiled by Robert Louis Daniell, Member #47276468]
Wesley was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Marines. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade in or near Shanghai, China in 1938 and 1939, and then assigned to the 1st Defense Battalion, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Four months before the Japanese attack, he was sent to Wake Island, a horseshoe shaped atoll comprised of three small Islands, Wake, Wilkes, and Peale, located about 2000 miles west of Hawaii.
By December, 1941 he was Captain Platt, second in command of the Marine Detachment, First Defense Battalion, Wake Island, and the strong point commander on Wilkes Island. He was well respected by his men. Cpl. John S. Johnson described him as "a good man and the very epitome of an officer and a gentleman… The more familiar you became with him, the more you respected him." PFC Robert E. Shores added, " He'd get right in there with you….He might not stay there all the time, but he wasn't too good to take one of them shovels or one of those sandbags or whatever… That's the reason we liked him. We'd have done anything for Captain Platt." It was said his men would follow him in to hell and have fun doing it.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Five hours later they bombed Wake Island. The bombing continued for four days before the Japanese attempted their first invasion, on Dec. 11th. The invasion force consisted of "three light cruisers, six destroyers and two transports carrying an Imperial Marine detachment." The Marine Defense Battalion repulsed the invasion without allowing a single invader to reach shore. In the process, they sunk two destroyers, the Hayate and Kisaragi, two destroyer-transports, and damaged two light cruisers and three others ships. "The 450 Marines on Wake thus earned the noble distinction of being the only force in the entire war to defeat an amphibious assault." But their victory did not stop the daily bombing of the island.
Capt. Platt was known for his dry wit. Pfc Max J. Dana (at his machine gun post on Wilkes on Dec. 13th) recalled hearing an exchange between the Marine commander, Major James Devereux, and Capt Platt concerning famous band leader Kay Kyser who had dedicated a song to the men on Wake. "Hey, Captain, we had a song dedicated to us on the radio. Kay Kyser on his program dedicated a song to the Wake Island Marines." Adding some comic relief to their precarious situation, Capt. Platt replied, "What did they play, Taps?"
Before dawn on Dec. 23, 1941, and after 12 days of punishing bombardment, the second Japanese invasion attempt landed soldiers on the beaches on Wake and Wilkes Islands. On Wilkes, Captain Platt and his men were ready. They wiped out the Japanese force that landed there. "On Wilkes Island, 70 Marines, armed with little more than vintage 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles and hand grenades, set one transport on fire, and trapped the landing Japanese on the beach. Four hours later, that landing had been defeated, but on Wake Island itself, two hundred Marines faced hundreds of Imperial Marines."
While the battle on Wilkes Island was being won, Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, U.S.N., the atoll commander, out of contact with Wilkes, surrendered to the Japanese on Wake Island. Several hours later, Capt. Platt and his victorious Marines were moving from Wilkes to reinforce Wake and continue the counterattack when Major Devereux, bearing a white flag and accompanied by the Japanese commander, intercepted Capt. Platt and ordered him and his men to surrender. In a tense scene, Capt. Platt, leading the charge with two .45 pistols and his Marines behind him, confronted the Major, yelling "Who the hell gave that order?" Witnesses reported a heated debate with Platt fuming: "Marines don't surrender, Major. Let us die right here." and Devereux replying, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. This is an order. You will surrender." Moments later, Platt threw his pistols to the ground, saying, "___!" The Marines' singular victory on Wilkes Island was in vain, overshadowed by the surrender.
Post war analyses of the Battle for Wake estimated that only 250 to 300 invaders were still alive when the Marines were ordered to surrender. Overall, the Japanese were believed to have lost 1,500 men or more in taking Wake Island, at least 13 killed for every American lost.
The first Presidential Unit Citation of World War II, personally signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went to the defenders of Wake Island and included the statement: "The courageous conduct of the officers and men who defended Wake Island ... will not be forgotten so long as gallantry and heroism are respected and honored."
The prisoners of war from Wake Island were first taken to Yokohama, Japan on the Nitta Maru and then to the Woosung prison camp near Shanghai, China, arriving there Jan. 24, 1942. The month long voyage was a living hell. They were told, "You will be treated worse than Japanese soldier because you have no honor." Disobeying any one of twelve specific orders would be punished by death. In the manner of bushido, all were beaten unmercifully to teach them humility and to accept subordination. In the most gruesome event on the Nitta Maru, five men were selected for special punishment. In an on deck execution in front of 150 guards, the guard commander read the death sentence in Japanese, "You have killed many Japanese soldiers in battle. For what you have done, you are now going to be killed - for revenge. You are here as representatives of your American soldiers and will be killed. You can now pray to be happy in the next world - in heaven." It was not translated for the men to understand. They were then blindfolded, made to kneel, ceremonially beheaded, their bodies used for bayonet practice and then thrown overboard.
At one point, to set an example for violating the no talking rule, Capt. Platt, was severely beaten with a club. When he would not cry out, the Japanese struck him harder. Platt gritted his teeth, taking the rest of the beating in silence. Afterward, officers remembered that Platt, still bleeding from the mouth, told them, "Twarn't nothing." Even so, witnesses said Platt was visibly shaken by the severity of this beating. Well after the war, Lt John F. Kinney wrote, "The manner in which Capt Platt withstood this punishment set an excellent example of resistance for the rest of us to follow during our period of captivity. We must never give in. We must always show our enemies that we were stronger - at least in spirit - than they were."
The three years spent in Woosung prison were not much better.
In 1945, Capt. Platt and other prisoners were moved from China through Manchuria and Korea to prison camp Hakodate #4, Japan, and held there until the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. The camp roster listed: "Platt, Wesley M., Capt, 05130, USA, USMC, 1st Def Bn, Wake"
"Given Up for Dead, America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island" by Bill Sloan gives an in depth account of the battle for Wake Island and the fates of the American military and civilians taken as prisoners of war.
Captain Platt returned to the United States in September 1945 and served in Charleston, South Carolina, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
On Aug. 5, 1946 in the Marine Corps Chapel at Quantico, Lt. Col. Wesley McCoy Platt married Jane Avery Price, widow of Capt. Thomas Edwin Reagan, U.S. Army, killed in Europe in World War II. Wesley adopted their son, Thomas Edwin, Jr., who was severely stricken with polio. He spent many months personally giving physical therapy to Thomas. Because of Wesley's efforts, Thomas learned to walk.
From October 1946 to July 1947, Lt. Col. Platt was the Commanding Officer the 4th Marines at the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Wesley and Jane's daughter Valerie Jane was born in 1947.
In 1948 he was reassigned to Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington, Virginia where he was promoted to Colonel in January 1951. Four months later, Col. Wesley McCoy Platt was ordered to Korea. He left Jane, Thomas, 8, and, Valerie, 4, in Falls Church, Va. to await his return.
In Korea, Colonel Platt was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division. On 27 September, 1951, in combat with North Korean and Chinese forces in the "Punch Bowl" in Kangwon province, he was mortally wounded while crossing a bridge when his jeep was hit by an artillery shell. He died at age 37, the highest ranking Marine to be killed in action in Korea.
The colonel's body was returned to Virginia and buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 11, 1952 with full military honors. His funeral cortege included his bier pulled by six white horses following a company of Marines. Fifty years after his death, Jane was buried beside him.
Colonel Platt's awards and decorations include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with Wake Island Clasp, China Service Medal, American Defense Medal, Asian - Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal (Korea).
In other honors: the parade ground at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, Hawaii, is named Platt Field; a bridge in Korea is named the Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt Bridge; and the Veterans Service Center in Charleston, West Virginia, is named for him.
On April 22, 2011, Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt was honored in a flag re-folding ceremony held at the Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center (RSLC) in Charleston, West Virginia. The Colonel's funeral flag, donated by Ms. Valerie Platt Aulbert, the Colonel's daughter, is now displayed in the Col. Wesley McCoy Platt Service Center, opened in 2008 by the RSLC to provide services to veterans in need.
[Compiled by Robert Louis Daniell, Member #47276468]
Wesley McCoy Platt, son of Wilkie W. Platt and Bertha L. Murray, was born May 26, 1914 in Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina. He graduated from Summerville High School and graduated with honors from Clemson University in 1935 where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, Blue Key, Scabbard and Blade, Beta Sigma Chi, and the Central Dance Association.
Wesley was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Marines. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade in or near Shanghai, China in 1938 and 1939, and then assigned to the 1st Defense Battalion, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Four months before the Japanese attack, he was sent to Wake Island, a horseshoe shaped atoll comprised of three small Islands, Wake, Wilkes, and Peale, located about 2000 miles west of Hawaii.
By December, 1941 he was Captain Platt, second in command of the Marine Detachment, First Defense Battalion, Wake Island, and the strong point commander on Wilkes Island. He was well respected by his men. Cpl. John S. Johnson described him as "a good man and the very epitome of an officer and a gentleman… The more familiar you became with him, the more you respected him." PFC Robert E. Shores added, " He'd get right in there with you….He might not stay there all the time, but he wasn't too good to take one of them shovels or one of those sandbags or whatever… That's the reason we liked him. We'd have done anything for Captain Platt." It was said his men would follow him in to hell and have fun doing it.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Five hours later they bombed Wake Island. The bombing continued for four days before the Japanese attempted their first invasion, on Dec. 11th. The invasion force consisted of "three light cruisers, six destroyers and two transports carrying an Imperial Marine detachment." The Marine Defense Battalion repulsed the invasion without allowing a single invader to reach shore. In the process, they sunk two destroyers, the Hayate and Kisaragi, two destroyer-transports, and damaged two light cruisers and three others ships. "The 450 Marines on Wake thus earned the noble distinction of being the only force in the entire war to defeat an amphibious assault." But their victory did not stop the daily bombing of the island.
Capt. Platt was known for his dry wit. Pfc Max J. Dana (at his machine gun post on Wilkes on Dec. 13th) recalled hearing an exchange between the Marine commander, Major James Devereux, and Capt Platt concerning famous band leader Kay Kyser who had dedicated a song to the men on Wake. "Hey, Captain, we had a song dedicated to us on the radio. Kay Kyser on his program dedicated a song to the Wake Island Marines." Adding some comic relief to their precarious situation, Capt. Platt replied, "What did they play, Taps?"
Before dawn on Dec. 23, 1941, and after 12 days of punishing bombardment, the second Japanese invasion attempt landed soldiers on the beaches on Wake and Wilkes Islands. On Wilkes, Captain Platt and his men were ready. They wiped out the Japanese force that landed there. "On Wilkes Island, 70 Marines, armed with little more than vintage 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles and hand grenades, set one transport on fire, and trapped the landing Japanese on the beach. Four hours later, that landing had been defeated, but on Wake Island itself, two hundred Marines faced hundreds of Imperial Marines."
While the battle on Wilkes Island was being won, Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, U.S.N., the atoll commander, out of contact with Wilkes, surrendered to the Japanese on Wake Island. Several hours later, Capt. Platt and his victorious Marines were moving from Wilkes to reinforce Wake and continue the counterattack when Major Devereux, bearing a white flag and accompanied by the Japanese commander, intercepted Capt. Platt and ordered him and his men to surrender. In a tense scene, Capt. Platt, leading the charge with two .45 pistols and his Marines behind him, confronted the Major, yelling "Who the hell gave that order?" Witnesses reported a heated debate with Platt fuming: "Marines don't surrender, Major. Let us die right here." and Devereux replying, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. This is an order. You will surrender." Moments later, Platt threw his pistols to the ground, saying, "___!" The Marines' singular victory on Wilkes Island was in vain, overshadowed by the surrender.
Post war analyses of the Battle for Wake estimated that only 250 to 300 invaders were still alive when the Marines were ordered to surrender. Overall, the Japanese were believed to have lost 1,500 men or more in taking Wake Island, at least 13 killed for every American lost.
The first Presidential Unit Citation of World War II, personally signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went to the defenders of Wake Island and included the statement: "The courageous conduct of the officers and men who defended Wake Island ... will not be forgotten so long as gallantry and heroism are respected and honored."
The prisoners of war from Wake Island were first taken to Yokohama, Japan on the Nitta Maru and then to the Woosung prison camp near Shanghai, China, arriving there Jan. 24, 1942. The month long voyage was a living hell. They were told, "You will be treated worse than Japanese soldier because you have no honor." Disobeying any one of twelve specific orders would be punished by death. In the manner of bushido, all were beaten unmercifully to teach them humility and to accept subordination. In the most gruesome event on the Nitta Maru, five men were selected for special punishment. In an on deck execution in front of 150 guards, the guard commander read the death sentence in Japanese, "You have killed many Japanese soldiers in battle. For what you have done, you are now going to be killed - for revenge. You are here as representatives of your American soldiers and will be killed. You can now pray to be happy in the next world - in heaven." It was not translated for the men to understand. They were then blindfolded, made to kneel, ceremonially beheaded, their bodies used for bayonet practice and then thrown overboard.
At one point, to set an example for violating the no talking rule, Capt. Platt, was severely beaten with a club. When he would not cry out, the Japanese struck him harder. Platt gritted his teeth, taking the rest of the beating in silence. Afterward, officers remembered that Platt, still bleeding from the mouth, told them, "Twarn't nothing." Even so, witnesses said Platt was visibly shaken by the severity of this beating. Well after the war, Lt John F. Kinney wrote, "The manner in which Capt Platt withstood this punishment set an excellent example of resistance for the rest of us to follow during our period of captivity. We must never give in. We must always show our enemies that we were stronger - at least in spirit - than they were."
The three years spent in Woosung prison were not much better.
In 1945, Capt. Platt and other prisoners were moved from China through Manchuria and Korea to prison camp Hakodate #4, Japan, and held there until the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. The camp roster listed: "Platt, Wesley M., Capt, 05130, USA, USMC, 1st Def Bn, Wake"
"Given Up for Dead, America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island" by Bill Sloan gives an in depth account of the battle for Wake Island and the fates of the American military and civilians taken as prisoners of war.
Captain Platt returned to the United States in September 1945 and served in Charleston, South Carolina, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
On Aug. 5, 1946 in the Marine Corps Chapel at Quantico, Lt. Col. Wesley McCoy Platt married Jane Avery Price, widow of Capt. Thomas Edwin Reagan, U.S. Army, killed in Europe in World War II. Wesley adopted their son, Thomas Edwin, Jr., who was severely stricken with polio. He spent many months personally giving physical therapy to Thomas. Because of Wesley's efforts, Thomas learned to walk.
From October 1946 to July 1947, Lt. Col. Platt was the Commanding Officer the 4th Marines at the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Wesley and Jane's daughter Valerie Jane was born in 1947.
In 1948 he was reassigned to Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington, Virginia where he was promoted to Colonel in January 1951. Four months later, Col. Wesley McCoy Platt was ordered to Korea. He left Jane, Thomas, 8, and, Valerie, 4, in Falls Church, Va. to await his return.
In Korea, Colonel Platt was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division. On 27 September, 1951, in combat with North Korean and Chinese forces in the "Punch Bowl" in Kangwon province, he was mortally wounded while crossing a bridge when his jeep was hit by an artillery shell. He died at age 37, the highest ranking Marine to be killed in action in Korea.
The colonel's body was returned to Virginia and buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 11, 1952 with full military honors. His funeral cortege included his bier pulled by six white horses following a company of Marines. Fifty years after his death, Jane was buried beside him.
Colonel Platt's awards and decorations include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with Wake Island Clasp, China Service Medal, American Defense Medal, Asian - Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal (Korea).
In other honors: the parade ground at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, Hawaii, is named Platt Field; a bridge in Korea is named the Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt Bridge; and the Veterans Service Center in Charleston, West Virginia, is named for him.
On April 22, 2011, Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt was honored in a flag re-folding ceremony held at the Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center (RSLC) in Charleston, West Virginia. The Colonel's funeral flag, donated by Ms. Valerie Platt Aulbert, the Colonel's daughter, is now displayed in the Col. Wesley McCoy Platt Service Center, opened in 2008 by the RSLC to provide services to veterans in need.
[Compiled by Robert Louis Daniell, Member #47276468]
Wesley was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Marines. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade in or near Shanghai, China in 1938 and 1939, and then assigned to the 1st Defense Battalion, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Four months before the Japanese attack, he was sent to Wake Island, a horseshoe shaped atoll comprised of three small Islands, Wake, Wilkes, and Peale, located about 2000 miles west of Hawaii.
By December, 1941 he was Captain Platt, second in command of the Marine Detachment, First Defense Battalion, Wake Island, and the strong point commander on Wilkes Island. He was well respected by his men. Cpl. John S. Johnson described him as "a good man and the very epitome of an officer and a gentleman… The more familiar you became with him, the more you respected him." PFC Robert E. Shores added, " He'd get right in there with you….He might not stay there all the time, but he wasn't too good to take one of them shovels or one of those sandbags or whatever… That's the reason we liked him. We'd have done anything for Captain Platt." It was said his men would follow him in to hell and have fun doing it.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Five hours later they bombed Wake Island. The bombing continued for four days before the Japanese attempted their first invasion, on Dec. 11th. The invasion force consisted of "three light cruisers, six destroyers and two transports carrying an Imperial Marine detachment." The Marine Defense Battalion repulsed the invasion without allowing a single invader to reach shore. In the process, they sunk two destroyers, the Hayate and Kisaragi, two destroyer-transports, and damaged two light cruisers and three others ships. "The 450 Marines on Wake thus earned the noble distinction of being the only force in the entire war to defeat an amphibious assault." But their victory did not stop the daily bombing of the island.
Capt. Platt was known for his dry wit. Pfc Max J. Dana (at his machine gun post on Wilkes on Dec. 13th) recalled hearing an exchange between the Marine commander, Major James Devereux, and Capt Platt concerning famous band leader Kay Kyser who had dedicated a song to the men on Wake. "Hey, Captain, we had a song dedicated to us on the radio. Kay Kyser on his program dedicated a song to the Wake Island Marines." Adding some comic relief to their precarious situation, Capt. Platt replied, "What did they play, Taps?"
Before dawn on Dec. 23, 1941, and after 12 days of punishing bombardment, the second Japanese invasion attempt landed soldiers on the beaches on Wake and Wilkes Islands. On Wilkes, Captain Platt and his men were ready. They wiped out the Japanese force that landed there. "On Wilkes Island, 70 Marines, armed with little more than vintage 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles and hand grenades, set one transport on fire, and trapped the landing Japanese on the beach. Four hours later, that landing had been defeated, but on Wake Island itself, two hundred Marines faced hundreds of Imperial Marines."
While the battle on Wilkes Island was being won, Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, U.S.N., the atoll commander, out of contact with Wilkes, surrendered to the Japanese on Wake Island. Several hours later, Capt. Platt and his victorious Marines were moving from Wilkes to reinforce Wake and continue the counterattack when Major Devereux, bearing a white flag and accompanied by the Japanese commander, intercepted Capt. Platt and ordered him and his men to surrender. In a tense scene, Capt. Platt, leading the charge with two .45 pistols and his Marines behind him, confronted the Major, yelling "Who the hell gave that order?" Witnesses reported a heated debate with Platt fuming: "Marines don't surrender, Major. Let us die right here." and Devereux replying, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. This is an order. You will surrender." Moments later, Platt threw his pistols to the ground, saying, "___!" The Marines' singular victory on Wilkes Island was in vain, overshadowed by the surrender.
Post war analyses of the Battle for Wake estimated that only 250 to 300 invaders were still alive when the Marines were ordered to surrender. Overall, the Japanese were believed to have lost 1,500 men or more in taking Wake Island, at least 13 killed for every American lost.
The first Presidential Unit Citation of World War II, personally signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went to the defenders of Wake Island and included the statement: "The courageous conduct of the officers and men who defended Wake Island ... will not be forgotten so long as gallantry and heroism are respected and honored."
The prisoners of war from Wake Island were first taken to Yokohama, Japan on the Nitta Maru and then to the Woosung prison camp near Shanghai, China, arriving there Jan. 24, 1942. The month long voyage was a living hell. They were told, "You will be treated worse than Japanese soldier because you have no honor." Disobeying any one of twelve specific orders would be punished by death. In the manner of bushido, all were beaten unmercifully to teach them humility and to accept subordination. In the most gruesome event on the Nitta Maru, five men were selected for special punishment. In an on deck execution in front of 150 guards, the guard commander read the death sentence in Japanese, "You have killed many Japanese soldiers in battle. For what you have done, you are now going to be killed - for revenge. You are here as representatives of your American soldiers and will be killed. You can now pray to be happy in the next world - in heaven." It was not translated for the men to understand. They were then blindfolded, made to kneel, ceremonially beheaded, their bodies used for bayonet practice and then thrown overboard.
At one point, to set an example for violating the no talking rule, Capt. Platt, was severely beaten with a club. When he would not cry out, the Japanese struck him harder. Platt gritted his teeth, taking the rest of the beating in silence. Afterward, officers remembered that Platt, still bleeding from the mouth, told them, "Twarn't nothing." Even so, witnesses said Platt was visibly shaken by the severity of this beating. Well after the war, Lt John F. Kinney wrote, "The manner in which Capt Platt withstood this punishment set an excellent example of resistance for the rest of us to follow during our period of captivity. We must never give in. We must always show our enemies that we were stronger - at least in spirit - than they were."
The three years spent in Woosung prison were not much better.
In 1945, Capt. Platt and other prisoners were moved from China through Manchuria and Korea to prison camp Hakodate #4, Japan, and held there until the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. The camp roster listed: "Platt, Wesley M., Capt, 05130, USA, USMC, 1st Def Bn, Wake"
"Given Up for Dead, America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island" by Bill Sloan gives an in depth account of the battle for Wake Island and the fates of the American military and civilians taken as prisoners of war.
Captain Platt returned to the United States in September 1945 and served in Charleston, South Carolina, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
On Aug. 5, 1946 in the Marine Corps Chapel at Quantico, Lt. Col. Wesley McCoy Platt married Jane Avery Price, widow of Capt. Thomas Edwin Reagan, U.S. Army, killed in Europe in World War II. Wesley adopted their son, Thomas Edwin, Jr., who was severely stricken with polio. He spent many months personally giving physical therapy to Thomas. Because of Wesley's efforts, Thomas learned to walk.
From October 1946 to July 1947, Lt. Col. Platt was the Commanding Officer the 4th Marines at the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Wesley and Jane's daughter Valerie Jane was born in 1947.
In 1948 he was reassigned to Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington, Virginia where he was promoted to Colonel in January 1951. Four months later, Col. Wesley McCoy Platt was ordered to Korea. He left Jane, Thomas, 8, and, Valerie, 4, in Falls Church, Va. to await his return.
In Korea, Colonel Platt was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division. On 27 September, 1951, in combat with North Korean and Chinese forces in the "Punch Bowl" in Kangwon province, he was mortally wounded while crossing a bridge when his jeep was hit by an artillery shell. He died at age 37, the highest ranking Marine to be killed in action in Korea.
The colonel's body was returned to Virginia and buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 11, 1952 with full military honors. His funeral cortege included his bier pulled by six white horses following a company of Marines. Fifty years after his death, Jane was buried beside him.
Colonel Platt's awards and decorations include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with Wake Island Clasp, China Service Medal, American Defense Medal, Asian - Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal (Korea).
In other honors: the parade ground at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, Hawaii, is named Platt Field; a bridge in Korea is named the Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt Bridge; and the Veterans Service Center in Charleston, West Virginia, is named for him.
On April 22, 2011, Colonel Wesley McCoy Platt was honored in a flag re-folding ceremony held at the Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center (RSLC) in Charleston, West Virginia. The Colonel's funeral flag, donated by Ms. Valerie Platt Aulbert, the Colonel's daughter, is now displayed in the Col. Wesley McCoy Platt Service Center, opened in 2008 by the RSLC to provide services to veterans in need.
[Compiled by Robert Louis Daniell, Member #47276468]
Gravesite Details
Jane, Wesley's wife, is buried with him. Her name is on the other side of his marker.
Family Members
Siblings
