Edwin Martin Hart, Jr.

February 15, 1940

TWO FLAGLER BEACH YOUTHS ENLISTS IN MARINE CORPS

Two Flagler Beach youths were among the Floridians enlisted at the U. S. Marine Corps recruiting station, Savannah, Ga., on January 31, announced Captain A. C. Small, recruiting officer, today.

They are: EDWIN M. HART, JR son of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin M. Hart, Sr., and William W. Tinsley, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. William W. Tinsley, Sr.

Both have been assigned to the training depot at Parris Island, S. C, for instruction preparing them for service at home and foreign stations of the Marine Corps, and for duty aboard ship.

The recruiting office at Jacksonville, where the youths originally applied for service, will be closed this week and applications for service in the Marines should be made to the Marine Recruiting Office, Post Office building, Savannah, Ga., Captain Small stated.

May 14, 1942

Flagler County has 74 men in the various branches of the armed forces at this time ..... the list up to date is as follows: EDWIN MARTIN HART, JR.

May 6, 1943

We've been thinking EDWIN HART, Marine Cpl., was still at Quantico, Va., where he was located for a couple of years, but received a V-letter this week from the "Pacific Area," asking us to send The Tribune "to him out there. Edwin used a typewriter to write his letter but said he and the machine were located "in the jungle. He continued "You should come out here some time.

We have a pretty nice little island here for ourselves. Plenty of palm trees, tropical breezes, moonlight nights, birds and bees, and all the rest that goes with it to make everything enjoyable. We have our own open-air theater, with pictures not any older than Bunnell gets, and a public address system in the trees that brings recorded music about three times a day. The chow here is as good, or nearly as good, as can be found any place else in the service. And I expect there's a lot of places in the States the army and navy eat worse than we do here..."

(Edwin, we were glad to get the letter, and we would like to I go out there sometime, but we fear we were born "30 years too soon." The Tribune will be sent to the address given - good luck to you.

May 13, 1943

Last week we told you about a letter from Cpl. EDWIN HART of the Marines "in the Pacific" inviting us to "come out sometime," giving us an alluring description of "an island all to ourselves. But he'll have to do better. Just got a letter from Sgt. Ralph Harbert who has "resided" in New Caledonia and Guadalcanal and is now "somewhere else "in the Pacific." But you judge for yourself-listen:

"We have lots of entertainment such as, playing diamond and volley ball. We see a movie about three times a week. . . The people have dances for us. We have had two in our battery. Lots of pretty girls were there dressed up in their grass skirts and all the trimmings that go with them. I must say it is quite fascinating to anyone who has not seen it before."

Ralph, you should not tease an old vet - born thirty years too soon - it makes us skip a few beats of work on this rag. Oh, yes. Incidentally, Ralph sent his best regards to Mrs. Fuller "and to all the other people in Flagler county" and "my best wishes to all the fellows in the service." Ralph said he had received The Tribune regularly "since I have been overseas.”

January 4, 1944

First off word comes from S/Sgt. EDWIN HART, JR., who is apparently on New Georgia (or was) and where there are very few dull moments. Young Hart is a Marine combat photographer and recorded motion pictures that played a significant part in the American storming of Bougainville island.

According to a Marine Corps public relations, Hart and his pilot had orders to photograph anti-aircraft gun positions surrounding a Japanese air field on the island - guns which were endangering the success of American dive-bombers and other planes attacking the landing strip. Aerial cameras had failed to catch the flashes of the well hidden guns and Hart was ordered to use a 35 mm. moving picture camera in an effort to locate the guns.

"The SBDs (Douglas dive bombers) went over the target at 14,000 feet," the sergeant said.

Ack-ack opened up just as the first plane of our flight went into its vertical dive. I sighted the camera on the gun flashes below and ground away until the flashes had repeated several times.
But it doesn't take long to drop from 14,000 feet to 500 feet when you're going straight down. I hadn't used more than 30 of my 100 feet of film.

I told my pilot that I had plenty of film left if he wanted to do anything with it. He did. Even though the rest of the flight was leaving the target area, Lt. Butler circled the Japanese gun positions.

Flying at only 500 feet above the ground in a slow circling movement was asking for trouble - all in an effort to give me something to shoot with a camera.

Through the finder of my camera the ack-ack that poured at us seemed small and distant, but that was through the camera. Lieutenant Butler said later that it was the first time in his life he was glad to be caught in the middle. He claimed that all the ack-ack was either in front of us or behind us, above or below us. But we returned safely, as did every plane in the flight.

And if I had any luck with the pictures, the same pilots will return in a day or two and smash the guns defending the airfield."

May 4, 1944

In a letter written to his grandmother in Daytona Beach, Marine Sgt. EDWIN M. HART, JR. tells of how his marine buddies built a church in the jungle. His letter, in part, relates:

“I’ve just gotten back from church and have some time left before chow, so will spend it writing to you.

I wish you could see our new church - - I’ll send you some pictures of it sometime soon - - as soon as I have a chance to make some.

I’d like to be able to tell you how I felt while I was in it - - it is the most beautiful church I have ever been in. I have been in some that cost more and some that were more elaborate, but this one is saturated with a beauty that churches in the States just can’t have. And I’ve never been in a position to appreciate beauty quite so much before, either. After a year of going to church under a tarpaulin, a real structure is awe-inspiring. Not that our church is actually a building like yours at home. It’s made of logs and branches, and some lumber sawed out of the jungle, and is really only a framework, but it’s mighty elaborate for a building out here.

And we have stained glass windows - - three of them. They are not actually stained glass, either, but they’re as beautiful as any stained glass windows in state-side churches. And you get a feeling when you look at them you'll never get from looking at painted church windows at home.

Two boys made them by shaping and painting and putting together bullet and shrapnel shattered bits of green houses from our airplanes - the plexiglass coverings over cockpits. Blood and grease had to he cleaned off before the fragments could be used, of course.

And our light shades are made of one gallon tin cans, painted a matte gray on the outside, with crosses cut through them, and with the bottoms 'scalloped' - isn't that the word?

And we even have imitation pipes for our portable organ. They actually hollow reeds, shaped like the pipes of a pipe organ.

Those are some of the reasons it's a beautiful church, it's not so much the different things themselves as the work that went into it by its members, I know of no church in the States that can give proof of any more love and devotion. I think God is mighty proud of what his boys have built for him here."

December 14, 1944

We haven't seen him, but we learned that Marine Sgt. EDWIN HART arrived home yesterday. He has been in Quantico, Va., a couple of weeks after returning from a long tour of duty in the Pacific theater of action.