Richard Tregaskis

Richard William Tregaskis (November 28 1916 – August 15 1973) was an American journalist and author whose best-known work is "Guadalcanal Diary" (1943), an account of the U.S. Marines' invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during World War II. 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 graduated from the Pingry School and Harvard University and prior to World War II worked as a journalist for the "Boston American Record" newspaper.

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 two months following U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal, a pivotal campaign in the war against Japan. He subsequently covered the war in Europe against Germany and its allies.

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 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." [Richard Tregaskis, "Guadalcanal Diary" (New York: Random House, 1943), book jacket.]

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, author of "".) The diary was later made into a film of the same title in 1943.

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 troops.

Tregaskis' second wife, Moana, followed him to Vietnam, where she put her skills to work as an anthropologist, photographing and documenting the impact of war on soldiers and civilians alike. [cite web|url=http://ahc.uwyo.edu/onlinecollections/exhibits/souvenirs/tregaskis.htm
title=Souvenirs of War Virtual Exhibit
publisher=American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
accessdate=2006-12-18]

In 1964, the Overseas Press Club presented Tregaskis with the George Polk Award 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. Tregaskis was wearing the helmet in Italy in 1943 when a shell fragment pierced the helmet and his skull, nearly killing him. [cite web|url=http://www.newseum.org/warstories/exhibitinfo/artifacts.htm
title=War Stories
publisher=Newseum
accessdate=2006-12-15]

Tregaskis died at age 56 near his home in Hawaii as a result of drowning. The Richard Tregaskis Papers are on file in the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

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

Bibliography

Tregaskis' books include:
*"Guadalcanal Diary" (1943)
*"Invasion Diary" (1944)
*"Stronger Than Fear" (1945)
*"Seven Leagues to Paradise" (1951)
*"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)
*"Warrior King: Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great" (1973)
*"Southeast Asia: Building the Bases, The History of Construction in Southeast Asia" (1975)

References

External links

*Find A Grave|id=6916416
*cite web|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679640233
accessdate=2006-12-15
title="Guadalcanal Diary" by Richard Tregaskis
publisher=Random House Publishing
*imdb|id=0871730|name=Richard Tregaskis. Retrieved on 2006-12-15.
*cite web|url=http://ahc.uwyo.edu/onlinecollections/exhibits/souvenirs/tregaskis.htm
title=Souvenirs of War Virtual Exhibit
publisher=American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
accessdate=2006-12-18