FAMED ARMY UNIT HONORED

Local Man Was a Member

The year was 1943.  The war in Indo-China was going to be deadly.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the go ahead to establish a top-secret group of veteran infantry and any man who would volunteer.   The secret mission was to cut off Japanese supply lines and their lines of communications.   The 3000-man unit, one which were special forces before they became a regular part of the army, battled through thick jungles, deadly booby traps, fatal sniper fire, and all out attacks in five major engagements along a, seemingly endless 1000-mile arduous trek.  Hunger, injuries, and sickness took a heavy toll along the way to the men and their beasts of burden, which carried their precious food, water, and medicine, along with supply parts and ammunition.

Officially known as the 5307th Composite Unit, Merrill’s Marauders, named in honor of their commander Col. Frank Merrill, were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their accomplishments of  opening the Burma Road in the southeast Asia. 

  By the time the town of Myitkyina was taken, only about 200 surviving members of the original Marauders were present. A week after Myitkyina fell, on August 10, 1944, the 5307th was disbanded with a final total of 130 combat-effective officers and men (out of the original 2,997). Of the 2,750 to enter Burma, only two were left alive who had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness. None of the horses and only 41 mules survived.

Four years ago, the few remaining survivors and their families, began the process to convince the Congress to approve the issuance of Congressional Gold Medal for Merrill’s Marauders.  On October 17, 2020, President Trump signed the legislation into law. Today there are just nine or so known Marauders still known to be alive.

   One of the 200 marauders who survived the mission was John L. Tyre, a native of Brewton, Georgia, demonstrated  courage and bravery as one of three thousand men who accepted President Roosevelt’s call for volunteers for a “dangerous and hazardous mission. 

John Lawrence Tyre was born in Brewton, Georgia in 1921.  The son of Charlie and Nina Nobles Tyre, John attended Brewton schools until his graduation in 1938.  As a child, he enjoyed playing marbles, pitching horseshoes and fishing in Brewton Creek.  After he finished school, Tyre went to work as a diesel mechanic in Atlanta and Wrens.  In 1939, he went to Virginia to work at a naval air station.  It was during a visit back home that  he met his future wife Darrell in the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Dublin.   After passing his draft physical, John endured basic training at Camp Cross, S.C. before spending 3 months at the Fort Benning Infantry School and receiving advanced infantry training at Camp Van Doren, Ill.  Army privates earned very little, about fifty bucks a month. And John wanted to give Darrell a wedding ring, so while in Baton Rouge he earned $49 to pay for the ring by shooting dice all night long.  He gave her the engagement  ring in March of 1943.  Within a short time, Tyre was back off to more training, this time at Camp Carson, where he answered a call for hazardous duty service for a period of no longer than six months.   It didn’t happen that way.

John Tyre and 2000 other men trained in California for a few weeks and were transported aboard the U.S.S. Lurline, a converted passenger ship, to New Caledonia, where they joined a group of hardened veterans from New Guinea and Australia.  With a full load of supplies aboard, the ship set sail for Bombay, India, traveling along a zig-zag course to avoid Japanese submarines.    The Marauders trained for about a month.  On occasion, the men shot monkeys in the trees for target practice.     The group set out for Burma, passing through Sam, India, known as the wettest place on Earth with its 300 inch annual rainfall.   The first mission was the village of Shadasook, one hundred miles behind the enemy’s lines. With the aid of the China natives as guides and the support of the Girkas, dubbed by Tyre as the world’s best soldiers, the mission was a success. 

In unbearable heat, fighting torrential rainfall, debilitating diseases and Japanese snipers, Tyre and his fellow soldiers cut paths through jungles where there were none.   Tyre was a part of a force directed to secure the airfield at Michinau.   The enemy overran the village, but the Marauders retained control of the vital landing zone, which allowed Allied supply planes to keep “flying the hump” between India and Burma.  In the action, John developed a malarial fever of 104 degrees and was evacuated back to a hospital.   After six weeks, Tyre returned to duty.

Tyre was assigned to the Red Combat Team under the command of Maj. Edward Ghiz and 1st Battalion Commander Lt. Col. William Osborne.  One of Tyre’s most memorable moments in the jungle came when he and his buddy “Blacksnake” were on a scouting mission.  Three Japanese soldiers jumped out on the trail. Tyre instinctively unloaded his Browning Automatic Rifle.  “Blacksnake” was killed, but  luckily Tyre managed to fall down and roll into a low area.  For two days, Tyre and others waded down a creek avoiding being spotted by the enemy forces.    The closest John Tyre ever came to being killed was in that creek when the Japanese began shelling.  Some of the rounds were effective, killing Americans in mass.    Tyre was seeking refuge behind a tree when an artillery round landed ten feet away.    It failed to explode as designed, and once again, John Tyre’s life was spared.  A relief unit was brought in, and Tyre’s team set out on fifty-mile forced march through mountains for three days.   The area was secured and turned over to the Chinese army, which cut off the Japanese army’s supply lines and led to their retreat. 

While in the jungles, the men, if they were lucky, survived on a diet of potatoes, fish, rice and seaweed.  Supplies were dropped by air.   The men had to carry all of their equipment, including their M-1 rifle and 150 rounds of ammunition.  Many times Tyre and his buddies climbed into Japanese foxholes for cover, only to find them filled with body lice.  Of his commanding officers, Tyre most admired the unit’s second in command Col. Charles N. Hunter.  “He was our best leader and everybody liked him,” remembered Tyre.  

After his last mission, Tyre returned to the hospital and saw no more action.  He remained on duty helping his fellow soldiers by keeping the supply lines moving.  Sixty years ago in June 1945, John L. Tyre left China. From China, he traveled back to India, over the Indian Ocean,  the Mediterranean Sea, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Newport News, Virginia, where he arrived on July 20, 1945.    One of the highlights of the trip was the sight of Arabs riding camels as the hospital ship passed through the Suez Canal.   As fast he could, Tyre got a furlough, returned to Georgia and married his sweetheart.    After a brief honeymoon, he returned to duty at Fort Gordon, where he was discharged after a few months.

After the war, Tyre tried his hand at farming, living in a very small house which couldn’t shield his family from the cold winters.  He planned to “get rich” operating as a truck driver.  When the futility of driving on long runs and missing his family finally took their toll, Tyre went to work for Lockheed.  He worked at Warner Robins and as an fuselage inspector, Tyre helped build the first C-130 airplane in 1953.  Many of these durable planes were still flying fifty years later.  In 1971, he suffered a major heart attack, retired three years later and moved back home to Laurens County.   

John Tyre believed in the power of prayer.  His brother Bill was in the Army Air Force.  He believed in the possibility that it was his brother’s plane which dropped supplies to him and the other starving and battered soldiers.  During the war, the women of Brewton Baptist Church put stars on a quilt for each local boy in the war.  Prayers were prayed almost daily.  It worked.  All of Brewton’s boys made it home alive.

According to John Tyre’s calculations, nearly one third of his fellow soldiers lost their lives.  Perhaps as many as three times more Japanese soldiers were killed.  In summing up his time in the jungles of Burma, Tyre  said,  “It was rough go, but I knew God was with me.”