USMC Private Leo John Carvalis Jr. was born in Pensacola, Florida on December 21, 1921, the son of Leo John Carvalis Sr. (1894-1968) and Arizona Donaldson (1902-1968). His father was born in Athens, Greece and came to the US aboard the SS Patrice, landing in New York on October 3, 1910, and settling in Montgomery, AL. By 1916, the Carvalis family was in Pensacola, Florida with his father working as a painter and living at 300 E. Garden Street. During WWI, he served with in the military until July 10, 1920. However, by 1930 he and his family were in LaPorte, Indiana where he was working as a cook in a restaurant. In 1940, he is listed as a painter for the governments W.P.A. program during the Great Depression and living at Gull Point, Pensacola off East Creighton Road. By 1945, he is listed as a laborer and would finally retire from the restaurant business in 1958.
As for his son Leo Jr., he would graduate from Pensacola High School in the Class of 1940 and enlist in the US Marines' "Pensacola Platoon" in January 1942. The platoon was made up of 26 young men from the Pensacola area and would go through basic training as a single unit. Upon completion of his training, he left the Marine Corps base at New River, NC (today's Camp Lejeune) and headed for the South Pacific.
One of the first land battles in the Pacific was on the banks of Alligator Creek on Guadalcanal by the 1st Marine Regiment. Protecting Henderson Field was Company "G" of the 2nd Battalion who waited on the west bank with Private Leo John Carvalis, Jr., Pensacola High School Class of 1940, among them. Their enemy opponent was Colonel Kiyono Ichiki who was told that the Marines had been abandoned by their naval forces and were now critically low on food and ammo. The Japanese commander was a hardened veteran who welcomed the opportunity to attack and annihilate the demoralized, cowardly, and helpless Marines.
So, at 1:30 AM on August 21, 1942, a green flare arose into the sky from the jungles on the east bank as screaming Japanese soldiers charged across the shallow creek. Private Carvalis and his fellow Marines of Company “G” took the brunt of the initial attack as the enemy troops slammed into their position. The fight quickly devolved into hand-to-hand combat with the Marines pulling out their K-Bar knives or blasting the enemy at point blank range. Carvalis was part of a four man “firing team” dug in close to the river and all of them were killed by gunshot or bayonets in the initial attack. With machine gun fire pouring into their ranks and the Marines refusing to give an inch the enemy attack began to falter. The enraged Marines counterattacked and drove them back across the creek leaving enemy bodies all along the way. The memory of Pearl Harbor was still fresh on their minds, so mercy was scarcely a consideration at the time! By nightfall, over 800 of the original 900 Japanese soldiers in the attack were dead. Colonel Ichiki survived the battle but could not survive his ego at having been defeated by the “cowardly and inferior” Marines. His ego was so large and his contempt for the spineless Marines so great that he had written in his diary for the next day “Enjoying the fruits of victory.” Now his “loss of face” required him to commit suicide while the remnants of his force were hounded into oblivion and slaughtered. At one point the Marine tanks plowed over the brush where many of the enemy had taken refuge. Some even tried to swim into the ocean where they perished from the Marine's rifle fire. The battle was mistakenly called the “Battle of the Ilu River” or the “Battle of the Tenaru River” although it was fought on Alligator Creek. After the battle, the bodies of Carvalis and his buddies were loaded inside their rain ponchos and carried to the beach where a temporary cemetery had been constructed. Leo was buried in the 1st Marine Division Cemetery in Row #3.
At the end of the war, their remains were moved to the National Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii on January 25, 1949, where his heroic remains rests today. Leo’s brother, William Hiram Carvalis (1924-2002 Class of 1942) would enlist in the Marines "Pensacola Platoon" himself and would serve from 1942-1945. There, he would become a hero in the Battle of Saipan in 1944 where he was wounded. He would also serve at Tinian and Iwo Jima with two Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star before retiring after 32 years as a supervisor with NARF Civil Service at NAS. A third Cavalis son was Harry (NMN) Carvallis (1925-1975 Class of 1943) who was also serve with the Pensacola Platoon in WWII.
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