THE BATTLE FOR TARAWA - A Validation of the U.S. Marines

history.acusd.edu ^ | Unknown | Unknown

[MistyCA]

Hey Sam! You know I love your threads! You are still the best scrounger in the world! :)

[stumpy]

When I was in Boot camp in 1965, we were shown some color combat footage of the assault on Betio. The lagoon turned pink before our eyes. It is estimated there were 1000 Marine casualties before the first Marine got onto the shore.

[MistyCA]

ohhhhh. It's hard to hear that, much less see that. I know that is what they said about the beaches of Normandy too.

[SamAdams76]

Thanks for the links on Okinawa. Like I said, my uncle served on the Navy boat that landed the first group of Marines there on April 1, 1945. I'd like to print a collection of articles from the web and send it to him for Christmas (he will not go near a computer).

[tracer]

Raider bump....

[VOA]

A Validation of the U.S. Marines

Great thread...
but my reaction to the title (at the instantaneous spinal level) was
"the Marines don't need no steenking validation!".

[SAMWolf]

You got that right. But in the 1930's, there was some concern that the Marines were being trained for operations that were not deemed necessary. Tarawa proved that they were needed in an amphibious assault role and that their specialized training did pay off.