THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180416
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Memorial services for Lt. Gen. James Phillips Berkeley, who epitomized the best in the Marine Corps, will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Westminster Canterbury in Virginia Beach.
A Portsmouth native, towering, eagle-eyed Berkeley walked as if reviewing troops, shoulders squared as though pressed by a baton. He was a man of exactitude, alert to set aright anything he found amiss in society.
At odds with new rites in the Episcopal Church, he sent a donation to the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in memory of the 1928 Prayer Book.
Upset that a prayer sought the blessing of soldiers, sailors and airmen but not Marines, he wrote the bishop - who changed it to ``members of the armed services.''
He chided a columnist for terming as a ``heroic retreat'' the breakthrough of a Marine division surrounded by 12 Chinese divisions at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.
``You get that damn word `retreat' out of your head!'' he ordered. ``It wasn't a retreat. It was an organized withdrawal in perfectly good order, and they took with them their dead and wounded and weapons out of a place they shouldn't have been in the first place.''
His 38 years as a Marine began in 1928 in Nicaragua's banana wars. His father, Randolph Carter Berkeley, was a Marine colonel - he finished as a major general - and was serving at Managua while his son, a corporal, was on duty in the north.
When Phil was recommended for sergeant, the colonel blocked it. His son, he said, was ``too young'' for the promotion. ``So that's how much my father's influence helped me,'' Berkeley once said.
Commissioned in 1930, he joined the Marine detachment at the American Embassy in Peiping and then became an expert in military communications.
Early in World War II, he was a communications officer in Marine Corps headquarters. In 1943 he was an observer with the British division at the Salerno landing.
In 1944, Berkeley became a divisional signal officer in Hawaii. As executive officer of the 27th Marines, 5th division, in Iwo Jima, he won the Legion of Merit with Combat ``V'' for outstanding service.
In 1953 he commanded the Marine Barracks in Washington and was director of the Marine Corps Institute. In Korea in 1954, he was chief of staff, 1st Marine Division. In 1955, he began a three-year tour as an assistant chief of staff G-1, at Marine Corps headquarters.
Following a tour as commanding general of the Department of the Pacific, he became in 1959 commanding general, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Retiring in 1965 as commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, Berkeley was presented the Distinguished Service Medal for an ``extraordinary grasp'' of the military that had ``placed him at the forefront of modern military commanders.''
He enjoyed shaping a college degree program for Marines and fighting successfully for a high school program at Camp Lejeune.
After retirement, he and Margaret, his wife of more than 63 years, traveled abroad and delighted friends at home with insights and zestful conversation. ILLUSTRATION: Services for Lt. Gen. James Phillips Berkeley will be
Wednesday.
by CNB