Douglas Munro

Munro's father, James Munro (1891–1962), was born in Sacramento, California as James Wilkins.

By age eight he had moved to Canada; his divorced mother remarried a Canadian citizen whose surname he took.

Munro's mother, Edith Fairey (1895–1983), was born in Liverpool, England, and—in childhood—relocated with her family to Canada.

James Munro and Fairey married in 1914 at Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral; under U.S. naturalization laws at the time, Fairey automatically assumed American citizenship upon her marriage to Munro.

Douglas Albert Munro (October 11, 1919 – September 27, 1942) was a United States Coast Guardsman who was posthumously decorated with the Medal of Honor for an act of "extraordinary heroism" during World War II.

He is the only person to have received the medal for actions performed during service in the Coast Guard.

Munro was born in Canada to an American father and a British mother, and his family moved to the United States when he was a child.

He was raised in South Cle Elum, Washington, and attended Central Washington College of Education before volunteering for military service shortly before the United States entered World War II.

Munro and his shipmate Raymond Evans were known as the Gold Dust Twins, so-called because they were inseparable.

During the Guadalcanal Campaign, Munro was assigned to Naval Operating Base Cactus at Lunga Point, where small boat operations were coordinated.

Douglas Albert Munro was born on October 11, 1919, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

His father repatriated his family from Canada to the United States in 1922, settling in South Cle Elum, Washington, where he was employed as an electrician.

Munro was baptized at the Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in South Cle Elum.

In his youth Munro showed a high level of musical aptitude, mastering percussion, trumpet, and harmonica.

He performed in a drum and bugle corps sponsored by the American Legion, the Sons of the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps, eventually becoming the corps' drillmaster.

Munro was also a member of Cle Elum's Boy Scout Troop 84.

He attended Cle Elum High School, where he was a member of the school's wrestling team.

Following his 1937 high school graduation, Munro enrolled in the Central Washington College of Education due to its proximity to Cle Elum, so that he could continue performing in the Sons of the American Legion.

Munro was a yell king (a male cheerleader) at Central Washington.

In 1939, with the threat of war growing, Munro decided to withdraw from college and enlist in the military.

He reportedly told his sister he had chosen the Coast Guard because its primary mission was saving lives.

Slightly built, Munro spent the week before his induction eating heavily to meet the Coast Guard's minimum weight standard.

He spent most of his last night in Cle Elum with his friend Marion "Mike" Cooley, with whom, according to Munro's biographer, Gary Williams, he had been "almost inseparable" since childhood.

Munro underwent entrance processing in Seattle, where he met and became friends with Ray Evans.

Munro would spend the rest of his Coast Guard career with Evans, and the pair became known to shipmates as "the Gold Dust Twins".

Munro and Evans underwent recruit training at Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles.

They were then assigned to the Treasury-class cutter USCGC Spencer, serving aboard the vessel until 1941.

During the course of his military service, Munro received consistently high marks on his performance evaluations and—according to Evans—expressed a desire to become a career Coast Guardsman.

In mid-1941, with tension with Japan on the rise, the U.S. government began emergency mobilization, and transferred the Coast Guard from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of the Navy.

Munro and Evans volunteered for reassignment to the attack transport USS Hunter Liggett, which was being outfitted and manned by the Coast Guard as part of preparations for War Plan Orange.

At the Second Battle of the Matanikau in September 1942, he led the extrication of a force of Marines whose position had been overrun by Japanese forces.

He died of a gunshot wound at age 22 while using the Higgins boat that he was piloting to shield a landing craft filled with Marines from Japanese fire.

Several ships, buildings, and monuments have been dedicated to Munro, and a street in his hometown is named after him.

The anniversary of his death is annually observed in Cle Elum and at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May.

His grave has been designated a historical site by Washington state.

He is the namesake of the Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building, Munro Hall at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the "Douglas Munro March", the Navy League's Douglas A. Munro Award, the Coast Guard Foundation's Douglas Munro Scholarship Fund, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars' Douglas Munro–Robert H. Brooks Post.

He is the only non-Marine to have his name enshrined on the Wall of Heroes of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

By mid-1942, Hunter Liggett had been assigned to Transport Division 17, tasked with supporting the Guadalcanal Campaign.

In preparation for the planned amphibious operations, Navy personnel began training as small boat handlers under Coast Guard tutelage; owing to the shortage of coxswains, Munro and Evans volunteered to join the training.

Prior to the initial landings at the Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo, Munro was posted to Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner's staff aboard USS McCawley.