Richard William Tregaskis (November 28, 1916 – August 15, 1973) was an American journalist and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

whose best-known work is '' Guadalcanal Diary'' (1943), an account of just the first several weeks (in August - September 1942) of the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during World War II. This was actually a six-month-long campaign. Tregaskis served as a war correspondent during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Education and career

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Tregaskis attended the

Pingry School The Pingry School is a coeducational, independent school, independent, University-preparatory school, college preparatory country day school in New Jersey, with a Lower School (K–5) campus in the Short Hills, New Jersey, Short Hills neighbo ...

in Elizabeth and the

Peddie School The Peddie School is a college preparatory school in Hightstown, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is a non-denominational, coeducational boarding school located on a campus, and serves students in the ninth through twelfth gr ...

Hightstown, New Jersey Hightstown is a borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 5,494,Harvard University. Prior to World War II he worked as a journalist for the '' Boston American Record'' newspaper. His family name is of Cornish origin. He was tall. Shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, Tregaskis volunteered as a combat correspondent representing the International News Service. In fact, Tregaskis was one of only two journalists on location at Guadalcanal. Assigned to cover the war in the Pacific, Tregaskis spent part of August and most of September, 1942 reporting on Marines on Guadalcanal, a pivotal campaign in the war against Japan. He subsequently covered the war in Europe against Germany and Italy. Tregaskis' most renowned book, ''Guadalcanal Diary'', recorded his experiences with the Marines on Guadalcanal. As the jacket of the book's first edition noted, "This is a new chapter in the story of the United States Marines. Because it was written by a crack newspaperman, who knew how to do his job. ... Until the author's departure in a

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

bomber on September 26th, he ate, slept, and sweated with our front-line units. His story is the straight day-by-day account of what he himself saw or learned from eyewitnesses during those seven weeks." As a testimony to the power of Tregaskis' writing, ''Guadalcanal Diary'' is still considered essential reading by present-day U.S. military personnel. A modern edition is available with an introduction by

Mark Bowden Mark Robert Bowden (; born July 17, 1951) is an American journalist and writer. He is a national correspondent for '' The Atlantic''. He is best known for his book '' Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War'' (1999) about the 1993 U.S. military ...

, author of '' Black Hawk Down''. The diary was later made into a film of the same title in 1943. He covered the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It beg ...

and the

Allied invasion of Italy The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign of World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army G ...

, recording his experiences in ''Invasion Diary''. He was seriously wounded by German mortar fire while serving with paratroops and US Rangers near Cassino where he was hospitalized for five months, temporarily lost his speech, and had two operations during which a plate was fixed in his skull.. Tregaskis later covered Cold War-era conflicts in China, Korea, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Tregaskis reported on the growing conflict for a decade and accompanied U.S. Marines in command of local

ARVN The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suffe ...

troops recorded in his book ''Vietnam Diary''. Tregaskis' second wife, Moana, followed him to Vietnam, where she put her skills to work as an

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...

, photographing and documenting the impact of war on soldiers and civilians alike. In 1964, the Overseas Press Club presented Tregaskis with the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for first-person reporting under hazardous circumstances. A shrapnel-gouged helmet worn by Tregaskis during World War II is on display at the

National Museum of the Marine Corps The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near MCB Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006, and is now one of the top tourist attractions in the s ...

. Tregaskis was wearing the helmet in Italy in 1943 when a shell fragment pierced the helmet and his skull, nearly killing him. Tregaskis died at age 56, when he suffered a heart attack while swimming near his home in Hawaii and drowned. He was given a traditional Hawaiian funeral, and his ashes scattered off

Waikiki Beach Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...

. The Richard Tregaskis papers are on file in the American Heritage Center at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

in Laramie.

Bibliography

Tregaskis' books include: *'' Guadalcanal Diary'' (1943) *''Invasion Diary'' (1944) *''Stronger Than Fear'' (1945) (novel) *''Seven Leagues to Paradise'' (1951) *''Guadalcanal Diary'' (1955) (Revised, updated version) *''X-15 Diary: The Story Of America's First Space Ship'' (1961) *''Last Plane to Shanghai'' (1961) *''John F. Kennedy: War Hero'' (1962) *''John F. Kennedy and PT-109'' (children’s book, 1962) *''Vietnam Diary'' (1963) *'' China Bomb'' (1967) (novel) *''Warrior King: Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great'' (1973) *''Southeast Asia: Building the Bases, The History of Construction in Southeast Asia'' (1975)

In popular culture

The alternative band Guadalcanal Diary took its name from Tregaskis' book.

References

External links

Richard Tregaskis papers
at the

American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including politics, settlement, and western trails) and ...

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tregaskis, Richard 1916 births 1973 deaths American male journalists American newspaper reporters and correspondents American military historians American war correspondents American war correspondents of World War II War correspondents of the Korean War American war correspondents of the Vietnam War Harvard University alumni Historians of the United States Peddie School alumni Pingry School alumni American people of the Korean War George Polk Award recipients Deaths by drowning in the United States Writers from Elizabeth, New Jersey Journalists from New Jersey Accidental deaths in Hawaii 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists Historians from New Jersey 20th-century American male writers