Paola, Kansas was my hometown when at age 19 I joined the Marines. That was before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I was 21 and in L Company, 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, when the transport I was on approached Betio in the pre-dawn dark of 20 November 1943. I don’t remember the name of the transport, but we at least got there, and I remember watching the Navy bombardment of the island. We thought nothing could have survived that bombardment, but it didn’t take long to figure out that we still had a lot of work ahead of us. I still remember the striking red sky in the sunrise that morning!

About 35 of us hit the beach on D-Day in what was supposed to be the third wave at Red Beach #1 or #2. I really don’t remember what beach we landed on, but we were west of the pier. We were just lucky to land on a beach because we had been circling and circling for, I think, several hours just to clear the reef in our landing craft. Arriving finally on shore, the terrible heat, the smoke and noise, bullets flying everywhere, the bad smell of bloated bodies … we all found those conditions almost overwhelming. Awful to smell; constantly shocking to hear and feel the explosions; and terrible to see. A lot of heavy lifting by other Marines had already been done by that time, but it sure was no picnic for us either.

Our orders were to engage and kill the enemy; my equipment was a 12 gauge shotgun and grenades. We were spread out on a north-south line across the width of Betio and were told to clear all resistance on the island, moving cautiously to the east all the way down the length of the island to its narrow end. When we met resistance, we cleared it and moved the line forward.

Near the middle of the island we came upon a large pillbox. We surrounded it and called for the Sherman tank “China Gal” and for a flamethrower. It took quite some time to clear the pillboxes. That usually started by throwing grenades down the air vents, and then, as the Japanese ran from the pillboxes, they were picked off one by one. We then moved on, repeating that process wherever we needed to and eventually cleared the rest of the island. This line was made up of 3^rd Battalion, 6th Marines. I was in L-3-6.

After three days on Betio, we were tired, dirty, hot, sunburned and thirsty. Combat had been nonstop for all that time – not a single pause of any kind. What we had just finished cost us a number of good and brave guys. I remember so many of them.

By the time we were cleaning out the last of the enemy near the east end of the island, the Seabees were clearing and grading the runway so planes could land. The Seabees were also busy trying to bury all the swollen bodies of dead Japanese and Marines. The Seabees were careful that the Americans could be identified before being covered by the bulldozer.

My awards include two Bronze Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon for duty at Tarawa.

BRONZE STAR

A PHOTO LINK TO THE BRONZE STAR COMES HERE SOON.

PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION (Tarawa)

A PHOTO LINK TO THE PRESENTIAL UNIT CITATION (Tarawa) COMES HERE SOON.

Philip, we will remember you and your example of Marine discipline. Thank you for your dedicated service.

SEMPER FI, PHILIP !

Received 29 November 2010

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