WWII bodies found
36 Marines died in fierce Pacific fight
IT’S BEEN more than 70 years, but these heroes are finally headed home.
The bodies of 36 Marines, including a Medal of Honor recipient, who were killed during a fierce World War II fight in the remote Gilbert Islands are homewardbound, according to History Flight, an organization that helps recover military members deemed missing in action.
First Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr., the medal recipient, was among the men found in May in Cemetery 27 on the tiny atoll of Betio in Kiribati, where more than 1,000 Americans died fighting Japanese forces in the 1943 Battle of Tarawa, according to Mark Noah, History Flight’s director.
The missing Marines were declared “unrecoverable” in 1949 by the quartermaster general’s office, according to the group. But a 10-year, multimillion-dollar effort by History Flight culminated in the historic, and emotional, Pacific theater find.
Among those on the scene for the recovery was Bonnyman’s grandson, Clay Bonnyman Evans.
“The location of Cemetery 27 has been one of Tarawa’s most challenging historical puzzles. History Flight’s discovery and recovery of the site is a testament to the tenacity and professionalism with which it has searched for all the missing Tarawa Marines,” Evans said. “Our family, including Lt. Bonnyman’s two surviving daughters — my mother and aunt — is deeply grateful to History Flight for accomplishing what nobody else could for more than seven decades.”
Bonnyman was one of four men killed on Tarawa to earn a posthumous Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor in action. His remains will be buried in his family plot in Knoxville, Tenn., following a public funeral. Other bodies remain on the island, thousands of miles from American soil, as the recovery effort continues.
“Although we have dental matches to known missing Tarawa Marines for more than half of the recovered individuals, we are seeking DNA reference samples from families of the Tarawa missing,” Ed Huffine, board secretary for History Flight, said in a statement.