Corporal Robert “Cork” Blaemire

USMC 1943-1945

Robert “Cork” Blaemire was born in Ft. Pierce, Florida on April 13, 1924.  In 1943, while attending Hammond High School, in Indiana, Cork and several of his friends tried to  join the Marine Corps but was refused.  After graduation he and four of his closest friends were inducted in the Marines in August 1943.                                                                                                                                                          

After boot camp at Camp Pendleton, California, Cork was selected to join a new outfit, the 1^st Armored Amphibian Tank Battalion, the first of its kind in the Marine Corp, and trained as an amphibious tank gunner.  Most of the men in the new outfit were like him, in their late teens. However, there were some older men in their twenties, some married, some not. Some had already experienced combat, some not.  When he finished training at Jack’s Farm in San Diego, the battalion was shipped to the South Pacific Theater  – destination – invasion of Roi and Namur Islands, part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.                                                                                                                                                                                               

On January 31 to February 4, 1944, Cork experienced his first combat at Roi and Namur. The amphibious tanks were in the first wave to leave the LST.  As a tank gunner Cork was responsible for providing fire support and take out gun emplacements on the beaches where the enemy was entrenched.  Rough surf, on the first day of landing, caused many of the tanks to flip over, and they lost more troops to drowning than enemy action. The battalion then went to Guadalcanal for four months training for their next operation.

The initial invasion of Guam, in May 1944, was delayed due to enemy naval action and resistance on Saipan. After being out to sea in reserve status for two weeks and a restaging in Eniwetok, the invasion finally occurred on July 21, some 7 weeks after departing from Guadalcanal.  Amtanks from Cork’s C Company, along with those from three other companies, led the attack on the Asan beaches.  This action was the battalion’s most costly in casualties and tanks lost.  On August 12 the battalion returned to Guadalcanal, where they were refitted and prepared for the invasion of Okinawa.

The assault of Okinawa started on April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday and April fool’s Day.  Cork’s outfit supported the 6^th Marine Division with artillery and beach support in both the northern and southern parts of the island.  The action lasted 3 months and ended for the battalion on July 4.

Saipan was the battalion’s next and last rear area.  While preparing for the invasion of Japan the atomic bomb ended the war.  In November, Cork and most of the battalion was returned to the U.S. and on November 30, 1945, the 1^st Armored Amphibian Tank Battalion was deactivated at Camp Pendleton, California.

Cork was discharged in December 1945 at the Great Lakes Navy Base.  Since he was denied leave after boot camp he had not been home since 1943. Jobs were not plentiful around Hammond so he enrolled in Indiana University Extension and started college. 

Basketball in Indiana is called “Hoosier Hysteria” and while attending a Hammond High School basketball game he met his wife Donna. After a subsequent meeting at Indiana University, where she was also attending classes, they started a ten month relationship.  The courtship included trips to the Aragon, in Chicago where they both liked to dance to the big bands.  Movies, jazz concerts, parties and more dancing were the norm.  They were married in December 1946 at the Hyde Park Methodist Church in Hammond.

After a three day honeymoon in Chicago, it was back to work for both of them.  Cork worked in construction until 1949 when he joined the Hammond Fire Department.  He served in the department for 26 years and retired as Assistant Chief.  They have 4 children, Donna, Bob, Mike, and Kevin and 7 grandchildren.

After retirement, Cork and Donna moved to Manassas, Virginia, where they owned and operated a gift shop called “Cloud Nine” where Donna did all the work and Cork all the “BS”.  They retired again in 1992 and started a world of travel assisted by their daughter’s (Donna) 34 year career as a flight attendant.

In 2004 they and their daughter moved to Falls Run.  Cork says, “There is no other place he would rather be.” Both Cork and Donna are docents at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and continue to enjoy their association with the 1^st Armored Amphibian Battalion.