In this section are emails seeking to find Marine buddies, information about Marine family members, and various aspects about Tarawa in WWII. Please also see Marine Archival Records for getting official Marine records from the National Archives.
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 17:46:26 -0500
From: Jim Murray
Subject: Re: Tarawa/Makin
Jon-
Thanks very much for the web page. It was terrific to view and
follow the various links. My Dad also served 2/6 Batallion Commander,
Lt. Col R.L. Murray USMC. He went on to serve in Korea and Viet Nam. He
retired in 1967 after 31 years, and has lived in Oceanside CA since then.
He still plays golf three times a week, and shoots his age from time to time.
Jim Murray
Subject: Re: Where on Tarawa?
Date: 2/6/99 2:26 PM Central Standard Time
From: OleSmoky@aol.com
..I had to wade a long way and ended on red beach..Things were sure messed up..no one knew where you were supposed to be..I ended up with a flamethrower. When it was all over there were only 6 left out of our group. We were H&S Assault engineers.
Looking for Tarawa vets who knew my father
Carter King
Date: 21 February 99
My father, Lester B King was a navy corpsman at Tarawa who recieved the Silver Star for rescuing 16 wounded marines under enermy fire,14 of them after taking 2 13mm rounds in his back. He was then pulled to safety by 2 Marines. Their first names were James and Earl,as my oldest brother was named after them. I don't have any other info than that but i would like to hear from anyone who knew him. He died in 1991 while I was in the Persian Gulf War and I learned some about his wartime service from brothers and sisters, but if anyone out there knew him and can tell me more, I would greatly apreciate it.
Carter R King, SGT US Infantry
From: Glen Boren
Subject: Re: Tarawa
I kept a diary during my career on the USS Bunker Hill. It is light on a lot of detail as we were 50 some miles from the island and all I got was from the pilots that I talked to after a strike. I know that we were shocked at the reports coming in about the progress of the fighting as we could not find targets to shoot at and bomb. once in awhile we would get a report of a certain target to hit but they were few and far between.
Date: 13 Aug 1999
From: Sean Prizeman
Jonathan:
Nice to see website out there devoted solely to Operation Galvanic -
nice work. If you really want to see something quite interesting, go to
Washington, D.C. to the Naval Yard and visit the Marine Corps Historical Center
in Bldg. 58. You'll have to get clearance and permission (not difficult), but
go down to the basement. There's an archival room down there that has all the
combat maps used during the Pacific War, including 10-15 used during the battle
for Betio; they are stored in large flat-drawered filing cabinets. The maps have
all the situation markings on them, as the battle unfolded, and our victory
was as yet uncertain.
Sean Prizeman
Wheaton, IL
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999
From: Ted Eggum
Jonathan,
Just cruising the web for articles on Tarawa and came across your site.
I was in the Navy and had taken part in the WWII 50th commemoratives in
the South Pacific (Tarawa, Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, Philippines, Guam)
onboard the USS Germantown LSD-42, and I have been looking for footage
on vhs from these events. I know they must be out there somewhere as
CNN and other networks had crews out there for all these events. Have
you come across any videos? If you have could you please contact me
with information on how/where I could find them? Thank you for your
time.
Ted Eggum
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999
From: Dennis Conner
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the email and I am glad to see that you got to chat a little with
Gus. I will keep the homepage up and running for him. Thanks again and by the
way did Gus know and or remember your dad? I see both were radio-men....He passed
away Sept. 30, 1999 of Leukemia, which might be contributed to his exposure since
the Second Marines did spent time on the Island of Japan after the bombings.
He was buried at the Riverside National Cemetary in Californaia. Thanks again...
Dennis
From KRyder2310@aol.com
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 07:26:56 EST
Trying to find info on Richard Randall Ryder fought there as a corpsman for the Marines?
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001
From: George
Just wanted to let you know that I was really happy to see that you started the site on Tarawa. I was hoping that you would put in under the "readers write" page so that I could see if anyone remembered my dad. His name as Edward T. Mullen. He served with the 2nd Marine Division on Tarawa as a corpsman. I'm hoping that someone might have some info on him. Sadly, dad passed away on 11-10-93. He never liked talking about the war so we didn't really know too much from him. I believe that under the MARINES IN ACTION - "Weary but glad to leave the "Stinkin Island" in one piece" that the 2nd man walking in the center is a picture of my dad. I remember him showing a picture that was in a book that he had and I'm almost positive that he pointed that out that the picture was him.
From: Dennis Finco
Date: 20 Aug 2001
Looking for information about my uncle, Aurellio Mario Finco, who won the Silver Star on Saipan and saw action on Tarawa. The original citation and medal were sent to his wife in New Zealand. She sent them to my family. They were lost in the mail. Looking for the citation and onformation on him.
From: JTooley@erols.com
Date: 23 Aug 2001
My cousin was possibly killed at Tarawa. Robert Fisher, Bronx NYC. He was 18 and killed just after landing. Looking for information about him.
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 0:01:00
From: Robert Aiello
Subject: Battle of Tarawa
My father was in the Navy in WWII stationed with the 2nd marine division
as a pharmacists mate (he callled it a corpsman) He is dead now 13 years. My
mom told me he was wounded in the battle of Tarawa, she is pretty sure of this.
I beleive he spent up to a year in a VA hospital as well. My father's older
brother had told me that my dad was in Saipan-Tinian battle which if after
Tarawa conflicts with my mom's desciption.
Thanks in a advance for any help.
More to come....Due to an overwhelming number of requests I have resumed postings in this section and will be inserting many more emails during the next few weeks.
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Created 25 November 1998 - Updated 14 September 2003
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