This Snake Alley Customs USMC Super Cobra Chopper is dedicated to Forrest Dale Bailey born June 14, 1921. Joining the Iowa National Guard at the age of 17 while the winds of war were raging in Europe and the Pacific he served from July 1938 through June of 1940 before his enlistment into the Marines.

Upon hearing of the attack at Pearl Harbor and wanting to give the enemy at taste of their own medicine, he pursued enlistment in the Army Air Corps only to be rejected for his failure on the required vocabulary test. Writing a letter to the editor of the Fort Dodge Messenger he asked, “Are we going to fight this war with words or bullets!” Undeterred he bought a crossword puzzle dictionary, a newspaper and joined the Marines. Till the day he died he never forgave the Army and worked a crossword puzzle everyday.

Moved to active duty in May 1942 he trained at Camp Pendleton, California and was one of the first promoted to Corporal in the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division. The days of pheasant and squirrel hunting in the fields of Iowa paid off handsomely as he earned his Marksmen, Sharpshooter and Expert medals with the M1 rifle. Soon enough he shipped to New Zealand to train for the island hopping campaign that was the Pacific Theatre, his first battle was Tarawa in November 1943.

The small island of Betio located in the Southwest quadrant of the Tarawa atoll barely broke the surface of the Pacific but held a strategic importance with the only airfield in the Gilbert Isles. 4,600 Japanese gave their lives over eight days defending this tiny island and inflicting over 3,300 casualties among the Marines. Wading ashore to Red Beach 3 with Major Henry Pierson “Armor Piercing” Crowe leading the way for the 8/2, Sergeant Bailey was among those wounded in the first morning of the battle. Military planners missed the highest tide by three weeks so instead of a swift passage to the beach in the landing craft and Higgins boats, the Marines were forced to wade across 1,500 yards of open water as the enemy blasted away from the beach and from the hulk of a sunken freighter. 1200 men were WIA or KIA in the opening hours of Tarawa as the defenders held off all but Major ‘Armor Piercing’ Crowe and his 8th Marines. Major Crowe received the Navy Cross for his bravery and battlefield promoted Sergeant Bailey to Staff Sergeant. His awards included the Purple Heart and a Navy Presidential Unit Citation for that famous first day and night as Crowe’s men were the first to hold the beach and survive a night in the water under the pier.

Returning to Hawaii meant paradise to some but to the Marines it meant training and more training. Demolition instruction was his job and Platoon Sergeant was his next promotion. Forrest frequently spoke of the holes he made in the Big Island and how he wanted to go find them some day. His next battle would be in the Marianas at Saipan which meant nearly a month and 3,000 miles at sea to reach the jump off point. Platoon Sergeant Bailey was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant en route and would lead some of the men he had fought and trained beside.

Saipan is 72 square miles of rock rising some 1500 feet above the ocean. The enemy had burrowed into the rock to create a honeycomb of caves; nearly impregnable defenses. D-Day was June 15, 1944 and the island was not declared secure until July 9th. Those 25 days of battle claimed the lives of 23,811 Japanese and 3,225 American troops in addition to 13,061 WIA. Both Colonel Crowe and Lt. Bailey were among the WIA. Saipan would mark the end of their days in battle. Saipan is famous for the inter-service scandal that erupted when Marine General Holland “Hollin’ Mad” Smith relieved the 27th Army commander, Army General Ralph Smith for his failure to take the field between the 2nd and the 4th Marines. Lt. Bailey’s distaste for the Army was deeper than just the rejection by Air Corps. His wounds that resulted from an enemy breakthrough at the 27th Army positions and their enfilade mortar and rifle fire on the right flank of the 2nd Marines.

D+6 brought the end of Lt. Bailey’s combat career as shrapnel from a mortar round blasted the left side of his body. The round knocked him out, tore a gaping wound in his hip and made dozens of smaller wounds from his head to his feet. His troops believed him dead and left him for the Graves and Registration units. Lt. Bailey came to and asked the Marine trying to pull his boot off to toe tag him, “What are you doing, I ‘m alive!”. Hastily shipped to the hospital ship, Bailey spent six weeks in a body cast and six months in Naval Hospitals recovering from his wounds.

Returning to active duty in May 1945, 2nd Lt. Bailey trained troops at Camp Lejune, NC. until the war’s end. Discharged at Great Lakes Naval base in Waukegan, IL on November 24, 1945, the Marine Hymn played on in the Bailey house until his death in February 1977.