Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Japanese bombers dropped shells with base plates the size of manhole covers for about two hours almost every night while Lew Treleaven looked out from his base hut on the island of Guadalcanal. The retired colonel said those were some of the most frightening times in his long military career.
Often hot and miserable in the Pacific heat, he was one of many U.S. Marines to participate in the assault on the island, the Allied forces’ first offensive campaign in the Pacific theater in World War II.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Lew Treleaven, now 88 years old, hails originally from Cuyahoga Falls. He is a Mount Vernon resident and Kenyon College graduate, and isn’t shy when it comes to talking about the 300 or so days he spent in combat in the Pacific. He served from Paris, France, to Udorn, Thailand, and was required to retire in 1968 after 27 years as a colonel.
Treleaven enlisted in the Marine Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on Nov. 1, 1941. He attended artillery school and joined the First Marine Division in April 1942. He said he had originally considered a career in the seminary, but eventually came to the conclusion that he didn’t have the calling.
Although he said he was scared to death at times, he said he felt he was one who managed to handle the fear of the experience of combat better than some others.
On Guadalcanal, Treleaven was a forward observer of the attacking infantry of the Eleventh Marines, and directed artillery fire. He also worked as a logistics officer and made sure all supplies were separated properly after the landing on the beach.
Guadalcanal is one of the Southern Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Guadalcanal campaign in which Treleaven took part is sometimes considered a turning point in the war. The Japanese wanted to use Guadalcanal as a base from which to attack and disrupt the supply routes of the Allied forces between the United States and Australia. The Marines outnumbered the small number of Japanese troops on the island, and captured an important Japanese air base.
Treleaven said the U.S. forces caught the Japanese with their pants down when the Marines took the island. The Japanese fleet was about 400 miles away to the north. Initially, he said, the Japanese thought the Guadalcanal campaign was just a raid. On the night of Aug. 8, the Japanese sunk four U.S. cruisers in the course of half an hour. The Japanese bombed the island repeatedly at night. About two weeks after the Marines landed, they were engaged on land by the Japanese, who attacked from the south, east and west.
Treleaven directed the firing of a 105 mm Howitzer artillery piece south of the air base. Artillery units fired 75 mm Howitzers stationed on the east and west of the air base. After three major land battles, five naval battles and frequent daily battles by air, the Japanese were defeated and gave up the island on Feb. 7, 1943.
After Guadalcanal, Treleaven took part in military offensives on the islands of Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Talesia and, finally, Okinawa. He was promoted to the rank of captain afterward and was given the Legion of Merit, the fourth-highest Marine decoration, for his service as a logistics officer.
After the war, Treleaven said he moved around a lot. On April 11, 1946, he married Beverly Mulligan. In 1952, he was appointed the logistics planning officer at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Paris, and, until 1954, served with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the famous British officer who successfully commanded Allied forces at the Second Battle of El Alamein in North Africa.
“Technically, I should have gone to Korea,” he said. “But, instead of freezing my butt off in Korea, I was walking up the Champs-Elysées.”
Treleaven served in the Marines until January 1968, and retired as colonel. He earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and served as a comptroller, commander, data-processing officer, management engineer and executive officer for Marine installations on the East and West coasts, as well as in Chicago.
He couldn’t single out one experience as the most memorable in his career, but said he enjoyed his military experience and enjoyed the sense of camaraderie.
“I can’t pick out a single favorite memory in my military career,” he said. “It was all memorable.”
Although he said he has questioned whether the United States should have gotten involved in wars in Korea and Vietnam, he said he is proud that his son, Peter Treleaven, who also served in the Marines Corps and fought in Vietnam. Speaking on current problems in the military of recruiting enough people, he said too many assume that the freedoms they enjoy will always be there, and are unwilling to do anything to preserve them.
Treleavan remained busy after the end of his military career. He became assistant dean at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, Ill. In 1971, Bill Caples, then-Kenyon president, asked Treleavan to return to the college as registrar, then as vice president for development and finally as a special assistant to the president. The position was eliminated in 1990 and Treleavan retired at the age of 71.
Treleavan was a member of Gambier Village Council for 16 years, his last six years as president. Treleavan also served on the board of the YMCA, and was an early member of The Exchange Club and a Rotary member.
A lifelong Episcopalian, he has served many years on the vestry of Gambier’s Harcourt Parish in every leadership position. A Boy Scout since 1931, Treleavan is still a registered Scouter as an advisor, an Eagle Scout since 1936 and has served on many councils where stationed.