Re: Tarawa Island

Date: May 21, 2004

"Visiting Marine says his friends still buried at Tarawa

By BOBBY COMMAND Hawai'i Today

Pvt. Robert George, USMCR, was part of the wave that Time Magazine writer Robert Sherrod accompanied when the 2nd Marine Division hit the beach Nov. 20, 1943 on the island of Betio.

They were lucky; the men were among only 4,000 troops that survived the 76-hour battle which claimed more than 7,000 lives, including virtually all of the 6,000 Japanese marines and Korean laborers defending the island.

Hundreds of U.S. Marines were slaughtered as they waded 600 yards across tidal flats into Imperial Japanese Navy machine gun and mortar fire -- American intelligence did not have enough information to know a low tide would prevent landing craft from getting close to shore.

George, who was visiting the Big Island and Camp Tarawa in Waimea a few weeks ago for the first time in more than 60 years, in 2001 wrote "Tarawa: Too Young To Vote," a book his experiences during the battle.

"They kept coming, holding their guns over their heads, wading slowly intro that deadly machine gun fire," George wrote. "Each wave would lose a dozen men, but a few got through, so we were slowly building up supplies and men onto our beach head."

The horrific battle is etched upon the minds of all who were there. George is no different. His book recalls young Marines falling all around him, others charging without regard for their own lives to assault pillboxes and bunkers.

But he is also haunted by memories of his fourth day on the island, when he participated in a detail providing dignified burials for American dead.

George said he and seven others gathered bodies of dead Marines. He said the soldiers' personal effects and dog tags were removed and placed into bags. The bodies were then laid side by side in a trench and covered, the location marked so the remains could later be returned to the United States. Or so it seemed.

"A chaplain would clip the lower dog tag, put it in a sack with the rest of his things in a bag and we'd bury the body, or sometimes just a part of a body," George said.

One of the bodies, that of Sgt. Myron Lane Abbott, of Hinkley, Utah, who died of multiple wounds on the third day of the battle, may have been placed into this grave or another similar one on the island.

Just before he left Betio, George asked Capt. Warren Willard, a chaplain in charge of graves registration, how many dog tags had been collected. Willard told him more than 1,200. Seeking a more accurate figure, George did some counting and found the number to be 1,262.

While on a ship headed for the Big Island and Camp Tarawa, George said he heard Gen. Julian Smith angrily denounce criticism of the battle. Smith used an official count of 1,026 dead. The lower number may have been used by Smith because of the criticism, and George felt it would be corrected.

It never was.

Nearly 60 years later, George was participating in a Internet forum which encouraged veterans of the battle to share their experiences. One message was from Lt. Cmdr. William Abbott, a nephew of Sgt. Abbott, who wished to find out a little more about his uncle's life.

George, who by this time had already written his book, got interested in the request and found on the website americanwardead.com that Abbott had been listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines as missing in action or buried at sea.

In his research for his book, George had also contacted Peter Willard, the son of Capt. Willard, and examined the late chaplain's log, which contained the names of each soldier buried on Betio.

Among the names was the entry, "307212, Abbott, Myron L. Sgt. USMCR." It listed his cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds and pinpointed his place of burial as Beach Green C Cemetery, Row 1 Grave 9.

George said controversy surrounds the location of a cemetery on Beach Red. Another Marine who participated in the detail said the location was lost when a jeep first drove lengthwise over the graves, and the path evolved into a road. A nearby spot of ground was later leveled and crosses erected there.

Was the location of Abbott's grave also lost? Is his body in the Red Beach grave? George said he does not know, but he adds the only way to find out is to return to Betio and search the areas he remembers as burial sites.

George said he contacted the Marines about the controversy. Col. Sarah Fry, a public affairs officer at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, said she facilitated a meeting between George and Johnie E. Webb Jr., senior advisor of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.

That meeting took place two weeks ago. Webb was not available for comment.

Earlier this month, George stood in front of the Camp Tarawa memorial in Waimea as guests of Big Island military historians Alice and Bee Clark, near where he came along with other marines following the battle, reflecting on the horror he faced more than 60 years ago.

"Most of the trees seem to be a little more well kept," he said. "The town was much smaller, it was December and I remember it as being cold and miserable."

"It's still a pretty place, but it's much more noisy."

bcommand@westhawaiitoday.com"