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Originally Posted by Nebe
my gramps was a captian in the Marines.. fought in Guadal Canal, Tarawa, and Saipan. Saw some amazing stuff. Loved to talk about it. He gave me an officers sword from Tarawa that was almost cut in half by bullets and a grenade.. its very cool.
He's burried at Otis. I need to go up there and say hi some time.
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Those were some tough battles Eben. Tarawa, in particluar, is one of the least known, yet most ferocious battles in the history of planet Earth. On the day of the invasion, as it turned out, the tides were extremely low, so the Higgins boats (hoping to bring the Marines to the beach) got stuck hundreds of yards from shore on the coral reefs. The Marines had to wade in waist deep water for literally hundreds of yards, taking horrific machine gun fire. I believe 4 or 5 Marines received the Medal Of Honor at Tarawa. Eben, I was also a captain with the USMC...other than fatherhood, it will be the greatest experience of my life. I hope to swap stories with your gramps when I cross over to the other side. I get chills when I think of the WWII marines, what they did was nothing short of stupifying. It was impossible, they accomplished the impossible. I'm sure he's resting in the peace that they all so richly deserve, surrounded by all the love and blessings that God can bestow on him.. When you get up there to see him, tell him semper fi from Capt J, and tell him I want to hear all about it.
If anyone wants to know more about this battle, there is a book, I think, called "Medal Of Honor". Each chapter is about a different vet who received that award. There is a chapter on the life of a guy named David Shoupe, who was a Colonel in the Marines during WWII, he led the assault on Tarawa. There is a good, short description of the battle.
My Dad graduated from Annapolis, he was 1 year ahead of a young guy named John McCain. That's about the best story from my Dad's 8 year career.
I did 8 years with the USMC, now I crunch numbers for a small insurance company. Sometimes I think that leaving was a God-awful mistake.