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Life on Guadalcanal went on with minor air raids. The almost daily raids at about noon quickly became a fact of life for the marines. On August 12th, the marines started a supply run of two Higgins boats and a tank lighter between Guadalcanal and Tulagi. On the first run, a IJN submarine surfaced and started to engage the landing craft with its deck gun until marines of Battery E, 11th Marines bracketed the sub with their 75mm pack howitzers. "Oscar" as the subs were nicknamed would surface and fire a few rounds into the perimeter. On the 13th, one that approached Guadalcanal was taken under fire from 75mm half-track mounted guns and discouraged.

On August 10th, a marine patrol on the Matanikau River captured a Japanese sailor. While under going interrogation, he revealed that some his fellow sailors might surrender as well. The Division Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Goettge, added this info to a report of a white flag having been seen and decided to lead a patrol to capture a few prisoners, eventually numbering twenty-five men, the patrol included many key members of the Division Intelligence Section as well as the Regimental Surgeon of the 5th Marines, Lieutenat Commander Pratt.

Vandergrift gave reluctant permission and the Goettge patrol departed by boat after dark on August 12th. As Colonel Goettge stepped into the brush off the beach, he was killed by a burst of fire. The patrol was quickly pinned down on the beach and took heavy casualties. A runner was dispatched and he reached marine lines near dawn. Two other men who had escaped as the Japanese overran the patrol later reached safety. When the news reached the 5th Marines commander, Colonel Hunt dispatched a reinforced company, which landed west of Point Cruz and swept back without contact. Of the remaining members of the Gottege Patrol only a handful of tidal graves, a few helmets and Dr. Pratt's empty medical bag were ever found. Eighteen members are still Missing in Action, Presumed Dead.

As bad as the loss of key members of the Division Intelligence Section was, it was not until thirty six years later that declassified documents revealed the potential for an even greater disaster. The missing included the Japanese interpreter for the 5th Marines, Lieutenant Ralph Corry, who had performed consular work in Japan before the war. But Corry had recently labored at breaking Japanese codes in Washington D.C.. Unsatisfied with this contribution, he had volunteered for more active service and had somehow gained permission to join the 1st Marine Division. Had he been captured and compelled to talk, the knowledge that the Americans were reading Japanese codes would have inflicted great harm on the conduct of the war in the Pacific.