Alfred Edwards

Alfred Edwards was born at Harrison, Arkansas on 17 October 1910. He grew up in a large farming family headed by John and Cynthia Maybelle “May” Edwards, spending his early childhood in Boone County and most of the rest of his life in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.

As the years passed, some of the younger Edwards generation married, moved out, and started families of their own. Alfred tried a different tack. He finished grammar school and, once of age, decided to enlist in the Army. However, after two years in uniform, he elected to return to Oklahoma and went to work full time on the family farm alongside his father and brothers. Together, they managed to purchase some land in Adair County – finally owning, instead of renting, their home.

When he registered for Selective Service in 1940, Alfred was twenty-nine years old, unmarried, and living with his parents in Stilwell, Oklahoma. His niece Elnora remembered that Alfred was “a born naturalist. He loved to roam the hills and knew where all the wild fruits and nuts were.” He was a talented woodworker, and as the oldest son working the farm, may have aspired to inherit the property when his father retired.

Then came the news of Pearl Harbor.

Alfred volunteered for the Marine Corps and enlisted at Oklahoma City on 9 January 1942. He was 31 years old – considerably older than most “boots” – but his prior service gave him an experienced edge. After completing boot camp at San Diego, Edwards was assigned to E/2/2nd Marines; by April 1942, he wore the single stripe of a private first class.

After a few months of additional training, PFC Edwards deployed overseas and fought on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He managed to avoid serious sickness or wounds in the brutal campaign, and at the end of January 1943 his regiment was withdrawn from the combat zone and sent to New Zealand for a period of rest and recuperation.

Training recommenced in the spring of 1943, and for the next several months the Marines honed their marksmanship, marched hundreds of miles, attacked mock bunkers, and staged amphibious landings. On the weekends, there was the chance of liberty call and a train to Wellington.

In October, Edwards and his company boarded the USS Zeilin and departed New Zealand for their next operation – the invasion of Tarawa.

On 20 November 1943,  Easy Company was tasked with landing on Beach Red 2 – a heavily defended stretch of sand on Betio’s northern shore. The company came under fire as they approached the beach, and suffered extremely heavy casualties. Of 165 men who attempted to land, 62 were killed and scores more wounded.

As a member of the Second Platoon under 2Lt. Donald R. Dahlgren, PFC Edwards should have landed at the western edge of Red 2. The intense enemy fire drove the platoon’s vehicles too far to the west, and some Marines wound up on the wrong beach. One of the LVTs breached the sea wall only to have every man aboard killed or wounded. Another managed to get a few yards inland before tipping into a crater and being knocked out by a grenade. The scattered survivors who made it to shore were immediately embroiled in a fight for survival.

One of those who fell in action on the first day of fighting was PFC Alfred Edwards. He may have managed to reach the beach before a Japanese bullet slammed into his chest, “causing immediate death.”

After the battle, Edwards was reportedly buried in the East Division Cemetery – a considerable distance from the Red Beach where he came ashore. Casualty reports indicate that he was laid to rest in Row C, Grave 17 of the largest Marine cemetery on Betio.

When PFC Edwards’ burial ground (re-designated as Cemetery 33) was exhumed by Graves Registration personnel in 1947, his remains were not among those identified. Nor could the technicians at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii provide any further clues. He was declared non-recoverable in 1949.

Decades later, a DPAA directive led to the exhumation of unidentified remains in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Investigators paid particular attention to cases missing multiple important bones – in many instances, the jumbled nature of the remains prevented identification in the 1940s, despite the best efforts of technicians to segregate individuals.

This time, researchers noticed strong similarities between two cases, designated X-203 and X-209. Careful examination revealed that many of the remains actually belonged to a single individual, and had been inadvertently separated many decades ago. Combining the two cases provided a complete enough picture to positively identify Alfred Edwards in 2019.

A DNA sample from his niece – Elnora Lee, age 93 – was the final piece of the puzzle. “I just wish my grandmother was alive so she should know. She grieved the rest of her life,” Lee told Teresa McMinn of the Cumberland Times-News.  “I think this is wonderful what they’re doing, bringing these people home.”

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery