Bill Logan is January Veteran of the Month

William “Bill” Logan is Choctaw Nation’s Veteran of the Month.

Logan was born in Albion, Okla., attended high school through 10th grade, and then went to Portland, Oregon to build ships. At age 18, he was drafted into the Marines. After two days, he boarded a train to San Diego, Calif., where he attended boot camp at Camp Elliott.

He traveled to San Francisco and boarded a ship. He had trained as a machine gun operator with mortars and changed to a rifle platoon. The first Provisional Marine Brigade was formed and invaded six islands before the battle of Okinawa.

Logan arrived in Okinawa on April 1, 1945, and was wounded April 13, 1945. He was placed on a transport ship with other wounded and treated by a dentist, the only doctor aboard. He spent three weeks in a hospital in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. A transport plane took several soldiers to Guam to catch a troop ship carrying replacement troops to Okinawa, and Logan was back in action again. With many people in his regiment gone, wounded, or killed, replacements arrived every few days.

Okinawa was the last great battle of WWII and lasted 82 days, with 12,000 American troops killed and 400,000 wounded. Over 100,000 Japanese troops died, along with 150,000 civilians. When the island was secured, the division returned to Guam, where tents were set up and ready. New equipment and replacements were available, and training began for the landing on Mainland Japan.

Logan’s division went to North China (Tsingtao), where 60,000 Japanese troops and many civilians had been stranded when the war broke out. He helped in getting them sent back to China.

Logan returned to civilian life after the war and worked in the log woods. He and his wife, Opal Estella Miller-Logan, had three children: Nick, Sally Ann, and Nancy Gale. They were married for 72 years when she passed away. He has three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

The Choctaw Nation holds our veterans in the highest esteem and appreciates their sacrifices and contributions to preserve our freedoms and the way of life we hold dear.