HAND SALUTE!
Posted on 02/12/2019 2:20:57 PM PST by robowombat
Don’t Let Anyone Tell You that We Never Leave a Fallen Comrade Behind, There’s Too Much Proof Otherwise July 15, 2018
Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman, USMC - (left) a painting (not included) not long after being commissioned as a 2LT - (right) Bonnyman's remains approximately 75 years later found on Tarawa Atoll in the South Pacific The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II fought on 20–23 November 1943. It took place at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. It’s estimated that nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll.
U.S. Marines on the Attack, Tarawa Atoll, November 1943 Naval doctrine of the time held that in order for attacks to succeed, land-based aircraft would be required to weaken the defenses and protect the invasion forces. The nearest islands capable of supporting such an effort were the Marshall Islands, northeast of Guadalcanal. Taking the Marshalls would provide the base needed to launch an offensive on the Marianas, but the Marshalls were cut off from direct communications with Hawaii by a Japanese garrison and air base on the small island of Betio, on the western side of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Thus, to eventually launch an invasion of the Marianas, the battle had to start far to the east, at Tarawa.
The Battle of Tarawa was the first American offensive in the central Pacific region. It was also the first time in the Pacific War that the United States had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing. Previous landings met little or no initial resistance, but on Tarawa the 4,500 Japanese defenders were well-supplied and well-prepared. They fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the United States Marine Corps. America had lost many men on previous campaigns such as Guadalcanal. The difference was the men who were lost on Guadalcanal spanned a six month period, and the men lost on Tarawa were during a period of 76 hours.
Our Fallen Marines on Tarawa, November 1943
The loss of American lives on Tarawa was terribly embarrassing for the military. There are some who believe the casualty numbers may have been “adjusted” so the American people could swallow the bitter-pill of pictures showing hundreds of American dead on the beaches of Tarawa.
Tarawa was one of the first battles to be filmed in color. The images of American corpses decaying on the beaches of Tarawa were politically corrosive for the American people who were praying for a swift end to the war. Consequently, it’s suspected the American death toll from Tarawa was artificially minimized, and the Japanese death toll was artificially elevated. We have no actual evidence of this occurring. All we know is the casualty numbers provided in 1943, is far different than the numbers we know to be true today. Remember what Aeschylus said, “truth is always the first casualty of war.”
Initial reports stated that approximately 800 Marines were killed on Tarawa. Over time the number has been steadily rising. Officially today the number is; 1,009 Marines killed with 2,101 wounded. As of 2015, there were over 300 Marines still not accounted for from the 1943 Battle of Tarawa.
Edward Albert Heimberger, (AKA: Eddie Albert), movie and TV star. Died May 26, 2005 at 99 years of age.
AS A SIDE NOTE: While the Marines were assaulting Tarawa, Lt. Edward Heimberger (Eddie Albert) was shuttling Marines ashore for the assault. Prior to World War II, he had bit acting parts here and there, but began in radio in 1933. Before WWII, Heimberger had toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus,
In actuality, Heimberger was secretly working for U.S. Army intelligence, photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors. On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was discharged in 1943 to accept a commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the pilot of a landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire. Eddie was one of the fortunate ones that survived the Battle of Tarawa. Little did he or anyone else know at the time, that he would have a tremendously successful career on stage and screen from the war years until the mid 1990s when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
INSTALLATION OF A LIGHT POLE REVEALS THE BONES OF MISSING MARINES
For many years a nonprofit organization called History Flight had been on Betio Island looking for our missing Marines. They employed the help of forensic anthropologists, geophysicists, historians, surveyors, forensic odontologists, unexploded ordinance specialists, medics and a grave detection dog.
History Flight learned of the “lost graves of Tarawa” while searching for a downed plane in the Betio lagoon in 2006. History Flight spent thousands of hours searching archives for clues before sending teams to the island for six weeks in 2008 to locate former cemetery sites and scan them with ground penetrating radar. A break came when some utility workers on the island were in the process of digging a hole to install a light pole and found some remains of our missing Marines.
The government agency tasked with finding, identifying and repatriating the remains of missing military personnel is now called the “Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Rumor has it that DPAA had largely ignored concentrated attempts to find our missing Marines on Tarawa because the nightlife in Vietnam was so much better. In other words, the hookers were much more plentiful in the area of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, than they were on the forgotten Island of Tarawa in the South Pacific.
One of the missing Marines was that of 1LT Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman who was one of four Medal of Honor recipients from the Battle of Tarawa. History Flight employing the very best technology including ground penetrating radar (GPR), backed up by a well-trained grave detection dog, finally zeroed in on the trench called cemetery 27 where Sandy Bonnyman’s remains were discovered. For seventy-two years, the official stance of the U.S. Government was that Bonnyman was buried at sea.
On May 29, 2015, forensic anthropologist Kristin Baker, based out of Hawaii, knew instantly that she had found the remains of 1LT Bonnyman because of the gold fillings which became visible as she brushed away the sand from the right side of his jaw. Most of the Marines were too young to even have cavities, but Bonnyman was considered the old man of the bunch in his late 20s to early 30s. Bonnyman was one of a two that had gold fillings in his teeth in his particular unit.
A burial list had been created which proved to be highly accurate. The list allowed History Flight to somewhat predict when and where specific individuals would be recovered. History Flight invited Clay Bonnyman Evans to be part of his grandfather’s recovery, having him arrive on Tarawa within four days of the excavation of his grandfather. He was standing there when Kristin Baker brushed the sand off his grandfather’s jaw exposing the gold fillings in his teeth.
History Flight had to convince a congressman of the importance of the finds they where making before the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) of the U.S. Government decided to get involved. The name of this government organization has since been changed to Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). This government agency sent in a team of people that included Dr. Gregory Fox.
According to people there when Fox arrived, he was a cantankerous individual who made it clear he was not happy about his assignment to Tarawa. Dr. Fox would drink heavily and seemed to care less about his job to recover our missing Marines.
Dr. Gregory Fox, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Dr. Fox made it known to a book author (Jeremy) who was on the island conducting some family research about the battles that his father had been in. Dr. Fox told this author that he, ‘wasn’t there to find no fucking Medal of Honor winner.’ When complaints were logged against Fox for his comments and attitude, the Washington swamp came in to defend Dr. Fox by intentionally not interviewing anyone who actually heard what he had said.
Dr. Fox and/or his associates in the U.S. Government actually took overt steps to discredit the work of History Flight by getting the island government to forbid History Flight from doing any digging on the island.
History Flight, in an effort to assist our government in finding our Marines suggested where they should dig based on years of exhaustive work and analysis. But, JPAC/DPAA intentionally dug in different locations knowing they would find nothing. It appeared to be an effort by the United States Government to discredit the work of History Flight. The U.S. Government went even further by encouraging the Kiribati Government to ban History Flight and anyone associated with them from their island.
The government of New Zealand had their own version of JPAC/DPAA and they were interested in finding the bodies of some New Zealanders who were spotters during the War. The government of New Zealand gave History Flight permission to look for their missing personnel and if they inadvertently found some Americans, oh well.
It appeared to some who witnessed all of these escapades, the American government did not want to find our missing Marines and were doing all they could to derail recovery efforts by History Flight or any other entity. By their actions alone one could conclude the United States Government doesn’t always want to find our missing military members. We say this with a very heavy heart.
It makes us wonder, did we leave people behind in Vietnam when we finally capitulated and went home? The saying that we never leave a fallen comrade behind may be true for our military members, but it surely isn’t true for our government. Once the battle is won and our troops are ordered to their next assignment, they can no longer search for, or initiate recovery efforts for their departed comrades. It’s up to government agencies to do that job.
In the case of Tarawa, the United States government response was absolutely disgraceful. Not only did they not wish to assist, they went out of their way to thwart finding our missing Marines. As proof of their pathetic dedication in finding our lost service personnel, JPAC/DPAA, to this very day has never used ground penetrating radar or grave detection dogs. Why is inexplicable!
There’s a wikipedia page about the outstanding and heroic American.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bonnyman_Jr.
<>When complaints were logged against Fox for his comments and attitude, the Washington swamp came in to defend Dr. Fox<>
Of course a dirtbag civilian rates higher than Medal of Honor Marines.
Sometimes the lights all shinning on you and other times you barely see. I read about Capt. Bonnyman two years ago in an issue of a magazine I subscribe to, World War2 Magazine. It was quite touching. His remains were found as well as several other Marines. They were discovered under a pig stye of all places, at least that’s what the article in the magazine said. Sad that they had remained undiscovered for so long but I’m glad these Marines have finally been found.
Unfortunately this sort of individual is not uncommon in the US government. A upper grade GS type who is not going any further and has lost most sense of responsibility. Cantankerous individual describes these older senior non supervisory and supervisory types who also not infrequently are drunks, don't shave or shower daily and wear worn and wrinkled suits badly in need of dry cleaning. In a stateside environment one just avoids dealing with them to the maximum and maneuvers around them. This is a classic type who retired on the job some years ago and feels he is entitled to do as little as possible and was really infuriated that he had to leave his comfortable home and do nothing job to fly to a remote island and actually do a field investigation. I suspect that, sadly , this organization has become the forensic dumping ground for DOD.
BOOK REVIEW ON: “Bones of My Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of World War II” by Clay Evans
August 11, 2018
Title: Bones of my Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of WWII
ISBN: 978-1-5107-3061-8
Author: Clay Bonnyman Evans
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: July 10, 2018
In 2010, having become disillusioned with the U.S. government's half-hearted efforts to recover the “lost Marines of Tarawa,” Bonnyman’s grandson, Clay Bonnyman Evans, was privileged to join the efforts of History Flight, Inc., a non-governmental organization dedicated to finding and repatriating the remains of lost U.S. service personnel. In Bones of My Grandfather, Evans tells the remarkable story of History Flight's mission to recover hundreds of Marines long lost to history in the sands of…
Normally, when the remains of service personnel are discovered, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) contacts the most direct relative they can find. The relatives are told that remains have been found which could be their missing relative, but a positive ID must be made before a death certificate can be issued and before the remains are released. DPAA then requests tissue samples to run a DNA tests to be absolutely positive the remains do indeed belong to their missing relative.
Once a positive ID is conclusive, arrangements are made to repatriate the remains back to America for an official release to a family member. Clay Bonnyman Evans was not going to sit patiently waiting for a phone call from the government concerning the remains of his grandfather 1LT Alexander (Sandy) Bonnyman, USMC.
Clay connected with a non-profit organization that is much more aggressive than DPAA to find our lost service members. Clay Evans made several trips to the South Pacific Atoll of Tarawa at his own expense and worked right along with other searchers in the blistering heat that bakes the island all year long.
His grandfather, 1LT Bonnyman was no ordinary Marine. President Harry S. Truman bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously on Bonnyman for his extraordinary efforts during the Battle of Tarawa against the dug-in Japanese defenders.
The Marines were catching seventeen kinds of hell when they hit the beach. One of the many problems were the bomb proof shelters that protected the Japanese during the naval bombardment that preceded the beach assault.
These bunkers were several feet thick with concrete and steel. A direct hit from a naval bombardment shell still protected the inhabitants within, and the Marines were having difficulty even getting close to the bomb proof shelter. This is when Sandy Bonnyman took command and came up with a plan to flush the recalcitrant Japanese from the fortification.
According to Sandy Bonnyman’s Medal-of-Honor Citation:
Determined to effect an opening in the enemy's strongly organized defense line the following day, he (Bonnyman) voluntarily crawled approximately 40 yards forward of our lines and placed demolitions in the entrance of a large Japanese emplacement as the initial move in his planned attack against the heavily garrisoned, bombproof installation which was stubbornly resisting despite the destruction early in the action of a large number of Japanese who had been inflicting heavy casualties on our forces and holding up our advance.
Withdrawing only to replenish his ammunition, he led his men in a renewed assault, fearlessly exposing himself to the merciless slash of hostile fire as he stormed the formidable bastion, directed the placement of demolition charges in both entrances and seized the top of the bombproof position, (and with a flame thrower) flushing more than 100 of the enemy who were instantly cut down, and effecting the annihilation of approximately 150 troops inside the emplacement.
Assailed by additional Japanese after he had gained his objective, he made a heroic stand on the edge of the structure, defending his strategic position with indomitable determination in the face of the desperate charge and killing three of the enemy before he fell, mortally wounded.
Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman, USMC - (left) a painting not long after being commissioned as a 2LT - (right) Bonnyman’s remains approximately 75 years later found on Tarawa Atoll in the South Pacific
Fast forward 72 years, Sandy's grandson Clay Bonnyman Evans was actually standing there on the Tarawa Atoll when forensic anthropologist Kristin Baker was brushing away the sand from the right side of a skull. Several Marines had been buried together in a trench. Kristin noticed there were gold fillings in the teeth, and shouted out excitedly for all other searchers to hear. The gold fillings were very important, because 1LT Sandy Bonnyman was several years older than the average Marine in his unit, and was one of only two Marines in that unit who had gold fillings in their teeth.
On May 29, 2015, Kristin Baker shouted out the discovery of the gold fillings and Clay came running over to personally view the discovery. They both realized that his long-lost grandfather had finally been found, and the tears welled up. Never mind the government had told the Bonnyman family for decades that Sandy had been buried at sea. Was it just a clerical error, or an out and out lie; we will never know.
This remarkable book, “BONES of my GRANDFATHER” is filled with interesting facts and describes the frustrating experience the Bonnyman family had, in dealing with the DPAA. As an example, one of DPAA’s finest was a Dr. Gregory Fox who purportedly was drinking heavily every night and apparently said to a coworker that he was not there to find any ‘fucking Medal of Honor winner.’ Complaints were filed with DPAA in Washington, but they defended their friend and colleague Dr. Fox. Can anyone spell, S-W-A-M-P?
It got so bad, that Clay Bonnyman Evans lost all trust and confidence in the DPAA, and seriously planned to place his grandfathers remains in his suitcase, then scurry off the island to ensure his grandfather was returned to his home and family in Knoxville, Tennessee. Even though his trust in the DPAA had hit rock-bottom, he was talked out of secretly removing his grandfather's bones and chose instead to allow the governmental process to run its course.
We had the honor of actually attending the funeral for Sandy Bonnyman in Knoxville, Tennessee. Except for a few boneheaded former Marines acting as crowd-control volunteers who apparently thought they were guarding Ft. Knox, the funeral detail conducted a ceremony that greatly honored Sandy Bonnyman’s service to his country.
BONES of my GRANDFATHER is a well-researched, wonderful book that we can whole-heartedly recommend. This book easily receives FIVE FULL STARS from the staff at MilitaryCorruption.com.
Yes that’s what I remember from the article. How his gold fillings caught the glint of the sun. That’s when they knew they had found him. I believe they also found a ring. A class ring of his.
Gut-wrenching, too.
An outstanding Marine and a true American hero comes home.
Grrrr.
HAND SALUTE!
Someone should have punched the disrespectful POS in the face and beat him within an inch of his worthless life. If anyone says anything, say he’s crazy, and that that you saw a coconut fall on his head.
He fell, and George Soros survived the war.
What a thing.
I know. When you put it that way...disgusting. I cannot say what I am thinking about that scum right now. (Soros)
What would you expect from a website named Military Corruption dot Com?
The "no man left behind" nonsense didn't get started until after Vietnam. And that position was taken without a rational national discussion on whether it is an effective expenditure of national resources to put the live of the living at risk to recover the remains of the dead.
“How his gold fillings caught the glint of the sun. “
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if you look at it right.
The wind in the willows played tea for two...
What a handsome man!
So brave!
What a handsome man!
So brave!
Icepicks and earholes. Some assembly required.
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