Posted on 11/11/2015 4:26:41 PM PST by Theoria
James P. Reilly and Michael J. Reilly, fraternal twins born on Nov. 9, 1923, remained close throughout their abbreviated life together. As allies and co-conspirators, they were always within each other’s orbit, attending the same public schools in Queens, playing sports together and jointly enlisting in the Marines.
During World War II, when they were 20, the brothers were part of a unit that stormed the beach of a small Japanese-held island in the Pacific. It would be their last hour together.
James was killed by gunfire, his body falling only feet from Michael; he was interred in a battlefield grave that would be lost for decades, until it was rediscovered this year.
On Monday, the twins’ birthday, James’s remains were buried once again, this time at a cemetery in Central Florida, 60 yards from the grave of Michael, who retired as a detective from the New York Police Department in 1973 and died in 2005.
The burial has provided some comfort to the Reilly family, for whom James had long been little more than a vague idea. There were some faded photos — the twins at their first communion, both men in their military uniforms — and a few documents, including a Western Union telegram sent by a Marine general to the twins’ father notifying him of James’s death.
But the family’s collective memory of James had for years been, at best, fragmentary. The twins’ parents died in the 1960s and Michael, who lived until he was 81, mostly kept his thoughts of James bottled up, a silence that spoke volumes about his deep heartache.
“Dad was very quiet about this,†said Mary Smith, 49, one of Michael’s daughters. “I think this was part of the way he coped with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
James Reilly was one of 20+ bodies that were found on Tarawa a year or two ago and identified by the Army lab in Hawaii.
A very moving story. Thanks for sharing.
Another bitter irony of war: in their preparation for Tarawa, Marine planners failed to account for a neap tide that fell during the invasion. Tides were far lower than normal, meaning landing craft could not deliver Marines to the beach; instead, they had to wade across hundreds of yards of shallow, open water and exposed coral reefs to reach the shore. Hundreds died.
The actor Eddie Albert was an assistant landing officer, in charge of a section of Higgins boats at Tarawa. As he saw the carnage unfold, he rushed in, ignoring the protests of his crew and Japanese fire. He rescued more than 40 wounded Marines, and was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V for Valor.
Years later, before he disappeared into the fog of Alzheimer’s, an interviewer asked Albert about the achievement he was most proud of. Without hesitation, the man who was a successful actor for more than 50 years (and nominated twice for an Academy Award) mentioned his service at Tarawa. BTW, Eddie Albert was 37 years old at the time of the invasion; he didn’t have to go, but he volunteered anyway.
Hollywood was a much different place back then.
We bring ours home to rest in our soil just as those in the civil war chose to be buried in the same soil of Arlington. These were men that tried with all their skills to kill one another. They by choice were buried together as brother warriors. They both were and are patriots of our great nation.
God bless you and keep you close.
Semper Fi.
Rest in peace.
Eddie Albert was a greater man than just about all of Hollywood is today.
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