A Little Williston History -- Non-Bakken -- Non-Oil -- The Book Page -- May 24, 2023

Locator: 44737ND.  

Updates

May 24, 2023: books on the 164th --

• link here; link here.

Original Post 

A historical note sent to family overnight:

I don't know if you all remember the Old Armory in Williston, North Dakota. Prior to high school this was where I first played basketball. Prior to that, the Old Armory was where the boys' summer baseball leagues held their award ceremonies. I never knew the history of the Old Armory. [It was called the "Old" Armory after a "new" Armory was built on south Main, near the Amtrak station.]

This is really quite a story and some of you may already know the story; I did not.

I assume you all remember the names of some of the islands in the South Pacific that became "famous" during WWII (Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Midway).

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the US Army quickly established a new division to occupy the islands off the northeast coast of Australia, the Solomon Islands, afraid the next Japanese target was Australia, somewhat protected by the south Pacific Islands.

The 1st Marine Division, under heavy fire, successfully "took" the largest Solomon Island. The largest Solomon Island province is called Guadalcanal and that is the Guadalcanal / the Solomon Island the US marines took.

The US Marines were hit incredibly hard and were reinforced and replaced by the 164th Regiment.

This is where it gets interesting. The 164th Regiment (referred to as the North Dakota National Guard) was, in fact, "established" in Williston, ND. It would have been established in the Old Armory in Williston. It was the Williston regiment (the North Dakota army national guard, the 164th regiment) that fought alongside and then relieved the US marines on Guadalcanal. Following closely were two more national guard units, one from Massachusetts, and one from Illinois.

Below is a passage rom wiki. It's a long passage but well worth reading.

Bruce

FROM WIKI:

The 164th Infantry, a unit of the North Dakota National Guard, entered federal service 10 February 1941 at Williston, ND.

Commanded by Colonel Earle Sarles, the 164th transited the South Pacific in March 1942.

The regiment spent nearly five months in combat training. In September, Colonel Sarles, a National Guard officer, was replaced as commander of the regiment by Colonel Bryant E. Moore, a West Point graduate. 

Arriving at Guadalcanal on 13 October 1942 as emergency reinforcement for the 1st Marine Division, the Regiment was the first U.S. Army unit to engage in offensive action during World War II in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Between 24 and 27 October, elements of the Williston regiment withstood repeated assaults from Japanese battalions and inflicted some two thousand enemy casualties. The 1st Marine Division commander, Major General Alexander Vandegrift, was so impressed by the soldiers' stand that he issued a unit commendation to the regiment for having demonstrated "an overwhelming superiority over the enemy." In addition, the Marines took the unusual step of awarding the commander of the Williston regiment (3rd Battalion, 164th,) with the Navy Cross for his role in these battles

Until the Division commander, Major General Alexander M. Patch, and other units of the division arrived, the Williston regiment, the164th, fought alongside the Marines in a series of encounters with Japanese units in the Point Cruz area, where they successfully dislodged enemy troops from two hilltop strongpoints. The action earned them the nickname "The 164th Marines." Members of the 164th were also known as "jungle fighters" within the U.S. media because of the terrain on which they fought.

Later, the 164th participated in extensive jungle patrols as well as organized offensive sweeps of the island to eliminate remaining Japanese resistance. This experience gained the regiment valuable combat experience in jungle travel and navigation, ambush and counter-ambush, and small-unit tactics using small arms and light support weapons. After the Battle of Guadalcanal, the regiment returned to Fiji with the rest of the Division to refit and replenish losses. At this point, many veteran officers and men of the 164th volunteered to join the 5307th Composite Unit, better known as Merrill's Marauders, for service in Burma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/164th_Regiment_(United_States).

Some months ago I started reading Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, but never got far into it due to other distractions. Time to go back and read it.