Posted on Jul 27, 2015
The remains of 36 Marines killed in one of World War II's bloodiest battles are back home.
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The military and a private organization have brought home the remains of 36 Marines killed in one of World War II's bloodiest battles.
A group called History Flight recovered the remains from the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the U.S. Marine Corps said. A ceremony was held Sunday in Pearl Harbor to mark their return.
History Flight has started identifying the remains, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will complete the effort, the Marines said. The Marines plan to return the remains to their families after they've been identified.
More than 990 U.S. Marines and 30 sailors died during the three-day Battle of Tarawa in 1943. Japanese machine gun fire killed scores of Marines when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the U.S. amphibious assault. Americans who made it to the beach faced brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Only 17 of the 3,500 Japanese troops survived. Of 1,200 Korean slave laborers on the island, just 129 lived.
The U.S. quickly buried the thousands of dead on the tiny atoll. But the graves were soon disturbed as the Navy urgently built a landing strip to prepare for an attack on the next Pacific island on their path to Tokyo.
About 520 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the battle.
Preliminary work conducted by History Flight indicates the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander J. Bonnyman, Jr., a Marine who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, are among the 36 brought to Hawaii.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marines Corps, said in a statement he's pleased to learn of the discovery of the remains at Tarawa, the site of one of the service's most significant battles.
"It was also the first contested landing against a heavily fortified enemy, and a turning point in the development in our amphibious capability. The lessons learned at Tarawa paved the way for our success in the Pacific campaign and eventual end to the war," Dunford said.
History Flight brought attention to the Tarawa missing when its research indicated it had found the graves of 139 U.S. servicemen. The Marathon, Florida-based organization used ground-penetrating radar, reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed veterans to narrow down possible grave sites.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/07/27/remains-of-36-unidentified-marines-from-wwii-battle-return.html?comp= [login to see] 70&rank=1
A group called History Flight recovered the remains from the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the U.S. Marine Corps said. A ceremony was held Sunday in Pearl Harbor to mark their return.
History Flight has started identifying the remains, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will complete the effort, the Marines said. The Marines plan to return the remains to their families after they've been identified.
More than 990 U.S. Marines and 30 sailors died during the three-day Battle of Tarawa in 1943. Japanese machine gun fire killed scores of Marines when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the U.S. amphibious assault. Americans who made it to the beach faced brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Only 17 of the 3,500 Japanese troops survived. Of 1,200 Korean slave laborers on the island, just 129 lived.
The U.S. quickly buried the thousands of dead on the tiny atoll. But the graves were soon disturbed as the Navy urgently built a landing strip to prepare for an attack on the next Pacific island on their path to Tokyo.
About 520 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the battle.
Preliminary work conducted by History Flight indicates the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander J. Bonnyman, Jr., a Marine who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, are among the 36 brought to Hawaii.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marines Corps, said in a statement he's pleased to learn of the discovery of the remains at Tarawa, the site of one of the service's most significant battles.
"It was also the first contested landing against a heavily fortified enemy, and a turning point in the development in our amphibious capability. The lessons learned at Tarawa paved the way for our success in the Pacific campaign and eventual end to the war," Dunford said.
History Flight brought attention to the Tarawa missing when its research indicated it had found the graves of 139 U.S. servicemen. The Marathon, Florida-based organization used ground-penetrating radar, reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed veterans to narrow down possible grave sites.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/07/27/remains-of-36-unidentified-marines-from-wwii-battle-return.html?comp= [login to see] 70&rank=1
Posted in these groups: 
WWII World War Two
Marine Corps
WWII World War Two Marine Corps
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 21
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SGT (Join to see)
Sgt Mitchell Sporar , I don't find the skeleton at all comical when were talking about body parts being returned to family members.
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1999-17 Dec - "The remains of nearly 20 Marines killed in action on Butaritari Island during World War II were repatriated at a ceremony at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. The Marines were from the 2d Raider Battalion that participated in the Makin Atoll Raid during August 1942. The remains were believed to include those of Sergeant Clyde Thomason, the first enlisted Marine awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II."
History repeats itself!
From: http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/historydivision/Pages/Chronologies/1999.aspx
History repeats itself!
From: http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/historydivision/Pages/Chronologies/1999.aspx
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RIP in peace brothers! I am glad they are coming home. I don't know why its taken so long to take care of our own.
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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad, Makes me proud I'm an American and that these men are home where they belong. Their war is finally over...
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I am so happy that they finally get to be laid to rest on U.S. soil. Thank you GySgt for sharing this great news with us.
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There is a civilian gentleman who has made it his mission to get these Marines home. Over 1.000 Marines died on Tarawa and about half of those have not been recovered. Some of their remains were probably never recovered in the first place (drowned and swept out to sea or bodies blasted into small fragments). Those that were recovered and buried were not consolidated but buried in diferent plots around the Island. The location of the graves were not accurately recorded and weather, the natives and construction crews ended up (inadvertently?) removing the physical markers.
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