James Bell Sholar, Jr. Wounded on Peliliu WWII

James Bell Sholar, Jr. was the son of James Bell Sholar and Mary Gaines. He was born December 04, 1919, and died May 02, 1973 in Hopkinsville, KY.  James B Sholar grew up near the to

JAMES BELL SHOLAR, JR. was the son of James Bell Sholar and Mary Gaines. He was born December 04, 1919, and died May 02, 1973 in Hopkinsville, KY. 

 James B Sholar grew up near the town of Gracey on the Trigg/Christian County line. He played football and tennis in high school and received an "All Around Best Athlete" trophy. During high school, we made a few dollars working as a soda jerk at the local drug store. After completing high school, Jim was employed as a meter reader with Kentucky Tennessee Light & Power Company in Hopkinsville, KY.

  When WW II broke out, Jim enlisted in the US Navy. He was listed as a Pharmacist's Mate First Class V6 USNR, serial number 634-23-24. James entered active service on April 8, 1942. He saw action in the Pacific Theater and went ashore with a Marine Corps unit at Guadalcanal as a Navy corpsman. Like many returning veterans, he never talked much about his war experience. He said he never took his pistol out of its holster during any battle. Like the other medics in the Pacific Theatre, he painted over the Red Cross on his helmet and did not wear an arm band since it made him more of a target for Jap snipers.

  While he was at Guadalcanal for the duration of the battle he would remember and recall the sound of "washing machine Charlie's" plane flying over Henderson Field at night. A terrible memory that haunted him was placing dog tags between the incisors of dead Marines before putting them into body bags. He also spoke of giving intentional morphine overdoses to the hopelessly wounded. He would never talk about Pelilieu. I assume he lost a great many friends there. He was severely wounded in the left arm and chest by a Jap machine gun blast as he tried to reach a wounded marine. The young marine died, and it was hours before anyone could get to corpsman Sholar.

  Pelilieu is a six-mile by 2-mile coral islet with a fringing reef. Pelilieu's western-facing beaches were chosen for the invasion of September 15, 1944. It was code-named, "Operation Stalemate".  The men who were there called it the "Meat Grinder"  

  Pelilieu was a fight to capture an airstrip on a far-flung speck of coral in the western Pacific. And, as with previous island battles, the Americans would prevail, but at a cost no one anticipated, against a fanatical enemy whose new defense strategy would make the invaders pay dearly for every chunk of coral taken.  At 5:50 a.m. shelling begins for approximately 15 minutes followed by planes bombing & strafing. At 8:00 a.m. there is another few minutes of shelling. The First marines hit the beach at 8:32 a.m. 6,000 marines are ashore by 11:30 a.m. By noon the temperature is between 110 and 120 degrees.

 Marine casualties on Pelilieu (9/15/44-11/25/44) were 1,336 killed and 6,032 wounded. Navy casualties were 195 killed and 505 wounded. Army casualties (81st Infantry Division) were 110 killed and 717 wounded, with 264 killed and 1,335 wounded on Angaur (9/17/44-10/21/44). The Japanese lost an estimated 10,650 men. An additional 301 became prisoners of war. These were the highest D-day casualties except for suffered at Tarawa.

  Unknown to Allied planners before the assault on Pelilieu, was a series of coral limestone ridges in the interior of the island which the Japanese had suitably adapted for their new doctrine of "defense in depth". Unseen from the air because of thick jungle growth, the ridges were known collectively as Bloody Nose Ridge or the Umurbrogol. It was in this tortured landscape that the battle would rage for over 2 months and end when the last pockets of Japanese were eliminated. With defeat imminent and the Americans fast approaching, the Japanese commander, Col. Nakagawa, committed ritual suicide in his last command post.

  After the battle at Pelilieu, Jim received the Purple Heart and was evacuated to New Caledonia. He did not see any more combat, although his unit went on to Iwo Jima where it was decimated. He always said that if he hadn't been wounded at Pelilieu, he would probably have been killed on Iwo Jima.

  He was honorably discharged at the U.S Naval Personnel Separation Center Great Lakes, Illinois November 27, 1945. For his actions and bravery under fire James Bell Sholar received the Good Conduct Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific w/ 3 stars, & Victory Ribbon. He was also issued the Honorable Service USNR Discharge Buttons and Discharge Emblems. His Honorable was recorded in the Christian County Court House November 29, 1945

  After he returned home from the war, he went to college at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, and then on to Dental School at the University of Louisville with the help of the GI Bill. He met and married BEATRICE COMBS from Whitesburg, Kentucky June 17, 1959. She was born May 01, 1923 Letcher Co KY and died in February 1, 1993. She was the daughter of JAMES COMBS and SUSAN FRANCES FRAZIER.

Later he decided to join the Army for an overseas assignment in Germany. They loved their years in Germany. Neither of them had ever dreamed of seeing Europe, much less living there. They made frequent trips to France and the Swiss Alps. Their son, James Brent, was born in Augsburg, Germany in 1961, the day the Berlin Wall was completed (August 12). Jim's mom died soon after the birth of their son. He had been very close to her, and suffered his first heart attack while returning to the States for her funeral. His heart disease led to his medical discharge from the Army. He truly enjoyed the Army Dental Corp, and he would have stayed in to retirement if not for his heart. He retired as a Major. He once said that he would have never made it to the rank of bird Colonel because he had trouble keeping his mouth shut.

After being medically discharged from the Army because of his heart condition, he was practicing his profession back in Hopkinsville, KY by 1964. He continued to practice dentistry in Hopkinsville until he died in 1973. 

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