Channing Robert Whitaker

Channing Whitaker was born in Granger, Iowa, on 17 August 1925. He was one of ten children raised by Luther (“Lute”) and Retta Eugenia (Gates) Whitaker on a 350-acre farm in rural Dallas County. Channing’s youth was, in all likelihood, fairly typical for a farmer’s son of the era: a mixture of school and chores, working alongside his parents and siblings.

When the United States entered World War II, all seven of the Whitaker boys answered the call to arms. Most chose the Army or the Navy: Channing wanted the Marines. He was only seventeen, and according to family lore had a tough job convincing his mother to sign the enlistment papers. “She said he put a pen in her hand and made her sign the paper,” said relative Marla Brubaker.

Channing finally prevailed, and entered the Marine Corps at Des Moines on 14 December 1942.

Channing was soon on his way from Des Moines to San Diego for boot camp. He completed his initial training in the spring of 1943, and was subsequently sent to Camp Elliott for infantry school and additional training in the rifleman’s craft. By July, he was deemed ready for overseas deployment and sailed for New Zealand with the 24th Replacement Battalion. In the late summer of 1943, right around the time of his eighteenth birthday, Private Whitaker became a member of Company A, First Battalion, 6th Marines.

After a few short months of additional training in New Zealand – and enjoying the unfamiliar and exciting sights of Wellington on liberty – Private Whitaker participated in a series of complex shipboard exercises along with the rest of his regiment. The activity had a purpose: 1/6th Marines was ordered aboard the USS Feland on 23 October, and after a few more days of delay and additional amphibious training, sailed for Operation GALVANIC – the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

Private Whitaker’s company, part of the 2nd Division reserve, landed on the island of Betio on the night of 21 November 1943. They attacked early the next morning, fighting determined Japanese defenders and sweltering heat. After a long day spent working their way through tangled brush and craters and fighting for countless Japanese bunkers and pillboxes, A/1/6 dug in for defense and helped repelled a concentrated banzai attack. They lost heavily, but extracted a worse toll on their attackers, and the battle largely ended the following day.

At some point during the fighting on 22 November, Channing Whitaker was shot in the chest and killed. He was the only Whitaker boy to lose his life in the war.

The following day, Whitaker’s body was carried to a battalion collection point and buried in a long trench alongside nearly thirty of his comrades. The spot was christened “Gilbert Islands Cemetery” by the 6th Marines, and later “East Division Cemetery, Row D” by the 2nd Marine Division. Whitaker was the eighth man buried in the row.

A few weeks after the battle, the mass grave with the bodies of Channing Whitaker and his buddies was flattened out and paved over to make way for airbase construction. A memorial marker with his name was emplaced in Cemetery 33, Plot 10, Row 2, Grave 11 – but there was no body buried beneath the cross, and Channing was declared non-recoverable in 1949.

Row D was discovered by the non-profit research group History Flight in the spring of 2019. Channing Whitaker’s remains were among those recovered – and he was identified almost at once. He was officially accounted for on 29 May 2019.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa