This picture shows my father, Richard Edwin Cutler playing in the Marine Band, while overseas. He played Saxophone & Clarinet. He went off to fight in the Pacific. On the Island of Peleliu. Peleliu was one of the most fiercest and harshest battles for the Marines. He went there as a PFC and came back home a Sargent. My father captured 8 Japanese soldiers and a Japanese sniper rifle. He brought the rifle home. It had 3 notches on the stock of the rifle. My father ended up getting shrapnel in his legs from a mortar that landed nearby. He was sent home in 1944. His job stateside was located in Washington, DC. He was assigned to write soldier's families the letter they would dread to read. That their son was killed fighting for our Country. My father played in the Marine band for President Harry S. Truman's Inaugural ceremony. He is buried at Woods National Cemetery, in Milwaukee, WI. My father was my hero, and always will be.

Laurence Cutler
Big Lake, MN