Robert E Bush
Robert was born in Tacoma, Washington, on the 4th of October 1926, to his father who worked as a logger for a sawmill and his mother who was a nurse. He grew up in Raymond, Washington, with his mother after his parents divorced in 1930, and he followed in his father’s footsteps by working at a sawmill while in high school. Robert dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and joined the US Naval Reserve in January of 1944. He went to recruit training and Naval Hospital Corps school in Idaho before further training at the Field Medical Service School in California. By the time he deployed to the Pacific with the 5th Marines during the invasion of Okinawa, Robert was a Hospital Apprentice First Class, equivalent to our current Navy Corpsman, assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion. It was his actions one month after the invasion that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as medical corpsman with a rifle company, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Okinawa Jima, Ryukyu Islands, 2 May 1945. Fearlessly braving the fury of artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire from strongly entrenched hostile positions, Bush constantly and unhesitatingly moved from one casualty to another to attend the wounded falling under the enemy's murderous barrages. As the attack passed over a ridge top, Bush was advancing to administer blood plasma to a marine officer lying wounded on the skyline when the Japanese launched a savage counterattack. In this perilously exposed position, he resolutely maintained the flow of lifegiving plasma. With the bottle held high in one hand, Bush drew his pistol with the other and fired into the enemy ranks until his ammunition was expended. Quickly seizing a discarded carbine, he trained his fire on the Japanese charging point-blank over the hill, accounting for six of the enemy despite his own serious wounds and the loss of one eye suffered during his desperate battle in defense of the helpless man. With the hostile force finally routed, he calmly disregarded his own critical condition to complete his mission, valiantly refusing medical treatment for himself until his officer patient had been evacuated, and collapsing only after attempting to walk to the battle aid station. His daring initiative, great personal valor, and heroic spirit of self-sacrifice in service of others reflect great credit upon Bush and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Robert recovered from his wounds in Hawaii, where he used ping-pong to help regain his hand-eye coordination and was medically discharged in July of 1945. He returned home and finished high school and married his girlfriend, Wanda. On the 5th of October 1945, Robert received the Medal of Honor from President Truman in a ceremony at the White House, making him the youngest Naval recipient of the war and out of the 482 Navy Corpsman at Okinawa, he was one of six to receive the Medal.
Robert ended up buying a lumberyard from a friend in 1951, for six hundred dollars and the Bayview Lumber Company became highly successful, turning into a multimillion-dollar business. He had studied business administration at the University of Washington and served as the President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society from 1971 to 1973. Although it took a little longer than usual, due to only having one eye, Robert earned his private pilot’s license and often flew his friend, another World War 2 Medal of Honor recipient, Jimmy Doolittle, to a rural retreat for fishing. He attended every Presidential inauguration, with the exception of President Johnson (who invited no Medal of Honor recipients), from Dwight Eisenhower to George W Bush. Robert and Wanda had a daughter and three sons, one of which (Lawrence) died in 1986, and Wanda died in 1999. On the 8th of November 2005, Robert Eugene Bush died at the age of 79 due to kidney cancer. He is buried with his wife in the Fern Hill Cemetery in Menlo, Washington: 6th Edition, Block 1, Lot 24.
