CARL MAHAKIAN
Age: 84
Born: March 7, 1926
Hometown: East Los Angeles
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Years served: June 1943 - May 1946
Rank: Staff sergeant; remained in the active ready reserves and retired as a colonel in 1986.
Family: Wife Patricia
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Clinton Haas of Cathedral City.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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Two prime-time Emmy Awards sit inconspicuously on the terra cotta-tiled floor of U.S. Marine Corps veteran Carl Mahakian's Palm Desert home.
Mahakian received Emmys for Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Series for “Miami Vice: Brother's Keeper,” for the 1984 pilot episode and “Outstanding (TV) Film Sound Editing for a Limited Series or a Special for “The Day After” (1983).
The two statuettes of a winged woman holding an atom — symbolizing the arts and science of television — are easy to overlook among the floor-to-ceiling shelves of history books and Marine Corps memorabilia-filled walls.
“I had a double life,” Mahakian said.
Mahakian, who enlisted in the Marine Corps when he was 17, retired from the active ready reserve in 1986 with a rank of colonel.
Mahakian spent his civilian career in the film and television industry, working in positions including film sound editor, assistant film producer, associate producer and post-production coordinator.
“If there was a war, I was gone. Otherwise, I was working in Hollywood,” he said.
Mahakian entered Marine Corps boot camp the day after high school graduation. The 17-year-old had to get his parents' permission — and signature — to enter the Marine Corps before he turned 18.
“I threatened to run away from home if they didn't sign,” he said.
He was stationed at Marine Corps bases in Camp Lejuene and Cherry Point, N.C., received training as a radar technician — at a time when radar technology was in its infancy — and was assigned to Air Warning Squadron (AWS) 8.
“We came out to California to Mojave,” he said. “We had a little unit — 15 guys, no officers.”
At the Marine Corps Air Station in Mojave, Mahakian and the men — AWS-8 was the station's first air warning squadron — would go out into the desert for two weeks at a time to test the radar.
“We looked for any aircraft flying in the sky,” including civilian aircraft,” he said. “We were learning to read the (radar) scopes.”
After about six months, Mahakian and the men finally got order to go overseas.
“We left in January 1945,” he said. “We thought we were going to Iwo Jima.”
Once the men were across the Pacific — the radar group, now numbering 50 — boarded a medium-sized landing ship (LSM) in Hawaii for a trip to Eniwetok, a small atoll in the Marshall Islands.
“There were 50 sailors and 50 Marines and we fought all the way,” Mahakian said.
“One of the LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) broke down in Eniwetok,” he said. “We had to tow it all the way to Guam.”
In Guam, “I saw them starting to load up for Iwo Jima.”
But Mahakian and the group were not headed to Iwo Jima, but to the Philippines, where they remained for a few months before receiving new orders.
“Then we went to Okinawa,” Mahakian said. “You talk about your D-Day in Europe. Mine was D-minus five.”
Mahakian and his group landed on Zamami-Shima in the Kerama Islands on March 27, 1945 to set up radar stations — five days before the invasion of Okinawa.
Zamami-Shima is about 14 miles west of Okinawa.
The group established radar outposts in two locations on Zamami-Shima — one large radar station and another, smaller radar station, where Mahakian was assigned.
The Japanese blew up the large radar station.
“Of our 50 guys, two-thirds became casualties,” he said.
Some were immediately killed, others seriously injured.
“Nothing happened to our radar,” he added.
After the Battle of Okinawa, “We were getting ready to go to Japan. If they hadn't dropped the bomb, we would have been gone.”
After the war ended, “We were stuck over there for six months,” on occupation duty.
He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, and after graduating from the University of Southern California, he became a Marine Corps lieutenant.
Mahakian, who trained at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va., was sent to Korea as an infantry officer, serving in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.
When the Vietnam War commenced, “I asked to be in,” said Mahakian, by this time, a lieutenant colonel. “I wanted to go.”
Mahakian was assigned as special films project officer for the commandant of the Marine Corps.
“We made documentary films on the Marine activities in Vietnam,” he said.
Mahakian was also nominated for an Emmy in 1983 — but did not win — for Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Limited Series or a Special for “The Winds of War.”
Mahakian's numerous TV and film credits include post-production coordinator for “The Brady Bunch” (1969-1974), associate producer for “The Odd Couple” (1974-1975) and assistant film editor for “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962).
