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It seems like Almost Yesterday that Darrell Samuel Cole was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in action.
Marine Sergeant Cole was the son of Samuel R. and Magdalena Williams Cole of Esther, Mo. He graduated from high school in 1938 and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, leaving after one year to take a job in the automobile industry in Detroit.
On Aug. 25, 1941, before Pearl Harbor, Cole joined the Marine Corps and was sent to field music school and trained as a bugler. In this capacity, he was assigned to the First Marine Division – and on Aug. 7, 1942, he reached the shores of Guadalcanal as part of the first American offensive action of World War II.
When American troops suffered heavy casualties on that Pacific Island, Cole filled in as a machine gunner, and immediately requested a permanent transfer from music to “line duties.”
His request was granted and Cole would participate in some of America’s most difficult military engagements: Kwajalein, Saipan and Tinian. For this service, he received the Bronze Star for “resolute leadership” and “tenacious determination,” and a Purple Heart for wounds suffered at Saipan.
Due to his courage under fire, this “fighting field musician” was promoted to sergeant and in his new role, on Feb.19, 1945, led his machine gun section ashore on Iwo Jima.
Moving forward in the initial assault, they encountered heavy fire from two Japanese positions. Sergeant Cole personally destroyed these, and then when his machine gun jammed, he used hand grenades and a revolver to single-handedly eliminate three additional enemy positions.
And then he was killed by an enemy hand grenade.
Residents of Southeast Missouri may know of the monument on the campus at Mineral Area College, and of the famous USS Cole, both of which honor the heroic self-sacrifice of Darrell S. Cole.
It seems like Almost Yesterday that we had such heroes. | 
