Dear Readers,

When old Marines gather, they tell “war stories” … but they rarely are about war.

When you sit with 90-year-old John Druce, the former owner of the Spruce Point Inn, he might just tell you how he spent October 1945 as one of a quartet of young Marine First Lieutenants, the only Americans in Beijing, China.

As we celebrated the 237 years of the Marine Corps Saturday, Nov. 10 in the American Legion Hall, Druce told me the shortened version of a long tale of his Beijing adventures, which included a tour of the Forbidden City.

At the tail end of World War II, a 23-year-old Druce had served in the bloody island hopping campaign from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. He was in Tianjin, China when an Air force colonel ordered Druce and three other young Marine officers from the Third Amphibious Corps to Beijing.

“We were to secure the airfield, which was controlled by a Japanese Army. The Communist Chinese had a unit that coveted the airfield too.

“We were told the U.S. Army Air Force was getting ready to fly the Nationalist Chinese Army in to take charge of the field,” Druce said.

Druce and his friends took the train to Beijing, and were taken to the legendary Grand Hotel des Wagon Lits and installed in a posh suite.

After they cleaned the mud off their boots, the colonel said they were on their own and he left.

“We were the only Americans in Beijing; no one spoke Japanese or Chinese and we had no transportation. So we walked outside the hotel and stopped a chauffeur-driven black Lincoln sedan.

“The Japanese driver and his passenger got out, bowed and handed us the keys,” he said. They got in and headed to the airfield.

Somehow, they were able to convince the Japanese general who held the airfield to stay in place and keep the Communist forces at bay. Then Druce and his group headed back to the hotel where they began a series of evening adventures.

“On the second night there, we were at the hotel bar when in walked a Marine officer in his full dress uniform. He was an intelligence officer, an American who had been raised in China. He had been operating secretly in the interior since 1943 and he spoke the language,” Druce said.

Later, at a party with the Japanese brass, they found another interpreter.

“We were sitting at the table staring at each other, so we just sang a song. We stood up and sang ‘I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,’ and we sat down. The Japanese officers then stood and sang a song, so we stood again and sang the Dartmouth College fight song. Then someone on the other side stood up and sang The Maine Stein Song,” he said.

It turned out the Japanese guy had attended the University of Maine, but he was reluctant to let the Japanese know he spoke English.

From October 5 to October 22, Druce and his pals had the run of the Chinese capital. Each day, they made sure the airfield was open, somehow managing to keep the Japanese and Chinese Communists apart and shooing away the caravan of camels who had taken up residence on the grounds.

Near the end of October, his adventure came to an end when they got the word the Marines were coming in the next day, and they did.

Druce said the Seventh Marine Regiment arrived on the train. With the regimental band leading the way, the Marines marched into Beijing, straight to the old Marine barracks (the same building that was the scene of a fierce battle during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion).

The Japanese officer in charge had planned a ceremony to hand over the barracks to the Marines. It was a short ceremony.

“I will never forget General Rockey (Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey) who looked the Japanese general right in the eye said to him ‘Give the G.D. keys to my Sergeant,’ and walked away,” Druce said.

Later, at the formal surrender ceremony at the airfield, Druce was an American observer and said he was asked to sign the surrender documents.

“For years, I have tried to get a copy of those surrender documents,” Druce said.

Is this a war story? Is it a fanciful tale, one that Marines call “scuttlebutt?” Or is it the straight truth from the memory an old Marine?

If you think it may be a tall tale, John Druce will show you a copy of his official orders. They order him and his three friends to go to Beijing, China for the purpose of supervising the airfields in that vicinity.

For me, the word of John Druce plus those orders are proof enough. Semper Fi, John.