Posted on 10/29/2019 2:28:16 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
The newly-identified remains of a Texas marine killed in World War II are now headed to San Antonio for a proper burial.
Marine Corp Reserve 2nd Lt. Ernest A. Matthews Jr., 34, of Dallas, died while fighting Imperial Japanese Forces on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands on November 20, 1943.
"Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated," according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Unfortunately, no recovered remains could be associated with Matthews and in 1949 he was declared "non-recoverable".
(Excerpt) Read more at news4sanantonio.com ...
My late father was in that battle.
God bless your Dad and all those brave and great men.
My Dad who served in China/Burma/India Theater lost his best friend at Tarawa. He’s still MIA.
Next Tuesday,, I will go if all goes well this Thursday with my operation,, supposed to be in and out,, you know how they are ..
Tarawa was a terrible wake up call. It was there that we came to the full realization that every Japanese on every island we needed to take would have to be killed because they would always fight to the death.
God bless him. It was a hell of a fight. The prototype of all that was to come in the Pacific campaign
Welcome Home, Marine.
One Uncle was in CBI, The other Uncle wounded at Anzio, my Dad on a little DE in the Pacific. They all made it back though. Bless them all everywhere.
Count me IN.
Yours, TMN78247
GOOD ON your Dad. - My uncle (PO3 Wayne Thomas B________) fought on Tarawa & was WIA x 3 there. = He was a member of the USN’s Naval Landing Party.
Yours, TMN78247
My dad might’ve rode in his landing craft.
I had an uncle on my father’s side who lost his leg in that fight. He was from a little town call Bridgeport just north of Dallas. Surely knew this man I bet.
If I wasn’t 2,000 miles away I’d be there!!!!
Glad they all came home. Yes, God bless them all.
Tarawa was a nasty battle.
My uncle went ashore with the first wave of Marines & was shot through palm of the left hand within the first 1-2 minutes. = He was “patched up” by a corpsman & returned to his beach control duties in less than 30 minutes.
(He once told me that, “It was a clean through & though hit & didn’t amount to much.”)
According to his 2nd PH citation, he was again wounded by shrapnel about 1400.
(His comment on that wound was, “It hurt like H.”)
AND
Believe it or not, he was shot yet again (through the right side of the neck) before dark that same day.
(That wound got him evacuated from Tarawa, treated aboard ship & according to his medical record, he reassumed his regular job as the “Acting COB” of his ship late in the evening on the 5th day after receiving that 3rd wound. = His comment was, “I don’t remember much about that, so it was not a big deal.” - Fwiw, his medical record indicates that he received a blood transfusion, so it must have more of “a big deal” than he told me.)
THREE PH citations in one day has to be some sort of record, though NOT a record that anyone would want to achieve & certainly NOT surpass. = NOT the luckiest sailor ever, for sure, though certainly fortunate to have not only survived WWII but to have passed away quietly in his sleep in MAR 2009 at 88YO.
Altogether, my uncle received SIX PHs during his USNR war service.
(He was interred in our family’s plot in the Old Masonic Cemetery in MT. Pleasant, TX on 22MAR09.).
Yours, TMN78247
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