Return to Wake Island tour reunites former POWs

  • Published
  • By TSgt. Tom Czerwinski
  • Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --  On a remote Pacific atoll called Wake Island, military bunkers, houses and gun placements, camouflaged by dense brush and tall grasses spread around its blue water lagoon. In the morning rain more than 100 tourists with Military Historical Tours landed here Dec. 12 to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the battle of Wake Island and the events that launched the United States into World War II.

For most it was their first time on Wake Island, for others a reunion, and for a few it was a memory of loved ones lost there.

Mr. John Dale, 89, and Mr. Frank Carbullido, 87, were among the first to step onto the tarmac, where they began to relive memories of Wake Island when they were taken prisoner here 68 years ago - they were the guests of honor.

Mr. Dale of Blackwell Okla., was a corporal in the United States Marine Corps, First Defense Battalion, and is one of the last remaining U.S. Marines who were taken prisoner at Wake. Mr. Carbullido, a proud Chamorro from Guam, was a civilian storekeeper employed by the Pan Am Company.

Cpl. John Dale was in 'L' battery, a five-inch artillery battery which had about 60 Marines assigned and life so far on Wake Island had been pretty good. "I had arrived to Wake Island on the 25th or 26th of November, 1941. There were about 400 Marines on Wake. My assigned artillery placement was on the Wilkes Island part of Wake," said Dale. "Before the war started we could relax after duty and wander the Island."

The battle for Wake began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands. It ended on Dec. 23, 1941.

Cpl. Dale's artillery battery was credited for sinking the first Japanese ship (the Hayate) in the war by land based artillery. "We sunk the first ship by land based artillery during World War II on December 11th. I was a pointer on the gun, so it was my job to look through the scope and adjust the elevation then give the command to fire," said Dale. "The ship went down fast because we apparently hit the ammunition locker aboard; we thought maybe it was a supply ship, but we found out later it was a destroyer. Our reaction was jubilant, we thought war going great but we didn't understand what the total situation was."

The commander of Marines on Wake Island, Maj. James P. Devereux had surrendered around 7 a.m. on Dec. 23,  but 'L' battery didn't surrender until noon that day.

"We were on Wilkes Island and had killed the enemy that came ashore during the early morning hours and took only two prisoners," said Dale. "We had no contact with the commanding officer so we marched single file to main part of Wake and saw a white flag and were told to lay down our weapons. I was just shocked when I saw the white flag because I always thought Marines never surrender."

What remains of the three-week battle for Wake Island is mostly gone, but with the help of tour director, Maj. Gen. Orlo K. Steele, USMC (Ret.) and some Air Force contractors on Wake, the exact area of Cpl. John Dale's assigned artillery gun placement was found.

The story of Frank Carbullido was different, one of discrimination. He was left stranded on the Island along with 44 other Chamorros. "When word was out that Pearl Harbor was attacked and fear spread that Wake would be attacked so the Pan Am Company started evacuating civilians," according to Mr. Carbullido.

"I was one of those in the air on our way home to Guam when the war broke out," said Carbullido. "The plane turned around and went back to Wake and we were dropped off so Pan Am could take its U.S. citizen employees. There was no room for us on the planes so we were stranded. I did not return to Guam until September of 1945."

For both men the next 44 months were fearful and uncertain, with frequent movement from prison camp to prison camp. Both men were initially moved to Woo Sung and Khangwan, China near Shanghai and after a year there they were sent to other locations, traveling through China, crossing the Great Wall, down the length of Korea. Frank Carbullido stayed in Korea and John Dale ended up in working in a coal mine on the Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

After the Empire of Japan surrendered to U.S. Forces in August 1945, the two men were picked up by the U.S. Army and transferred to a hospitals in the San Francisco area. Mr. Dale returned to Oklahoma where he started a family and went to work for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. Mr. Carbullido returned to Guam, married and raised a family.

For others, the return to Wake Island tour brought back memories of better times. "This is unbelievable, I still recognize the main building air terminal and air traffic control tower where I worked," said Ernie Canfield, an Air Traffic Controller who lived on Wake with his family from March 1968 to April 1970.

"During the peak when we lived here more than 2,000 people lived and worked on the island. The mission was supporting flights mostly to and from Vietnam and base operations pumped more jet fuel per month than Kennedy International airport," Canfield added.

The island was held by the Japanese until Sept. 4, 1945 when the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines.

Wake Island is again a busy support base for transient military aircraft crossing the Pacific. Now owned by the U.S. Air Force, Wake Island is operated by four active duty Air Force personnel and 150 contractors, under control of the 15th Airlift Wing, Det. 1, Hickam AFB., Hawaii.