What Were the Famous Last Words of the Only Coast Guard Member to Receive the Medal of Honor?

Published Aug 14, 2026, 3:24 PM EDT

Douglas Munro was 22 years old, and his last words were a question about the men he'd just saved.

Of the more than 3,500 Medals of Honor awarded in American history, only one has ever gone to a member of the Coast Guard. Signalman First Class Douglas Albert Munro earned it Sept. 27, 1942, at Guadalcanal, in an action that lasted a matter of minutes and cost him his life at 22 years old.

A Kid From Cle Elum

Munro was born Oct. 11, 1919, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to American parents. He grew up in South Cle Elum, Washington, a small logging town on the eastern slope of the Cascades. He was a capable athlete in high school, spent a year at Central Washington College of Education, and enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1939, three years before the country entered World War II. Before Guadalcanal, he'd already served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. In the Pacific, he formed a close working partnership with fellow Coast Guardsman Raymond Evans, the two of them nicknamed the Gold Dust Twins by the men who served alongside them. When Munro reported for duty on Guadalcanal in August 1942, having just come from ferrying Marines ashore in the invasion's opening waves, he showed up wearing nothing but shorts, boots and his hat. His commanding officer asked if that was really how he intended to report for duty. "It is today, sir," Munro told him.z Read More: In World War II, the 'Hooligan Navy' Hunted Nazi U-Boats Off the East Coast of the US