Charles Eugene Wallace

Eugene was born in Detroit on 15 May 1924, the first and only child of Charles Edward Place and Wilma Francis Brooks. The Places were not happily married; in 1929, Wilma sued for divorce on grounds of desertion. She received the decree on 10 June – and the very next day married John Edward Wallace. The new family moved in with Wilma’s parents, and little Eugene adopted his stepfather’s surname.

Little information is readily available about Wallace’s life before the war. He lived with his extended family on Wyoming Avenue, attended school, worked as a delivery boy and for the Detroit Lubricator Cmopamy. When he registered for the draft in June of 1942, he gave his name as “Eugene Charles Wallace.” He would reverse the order when he joined the Marines.

Wallace volunteered for Marine Corps service on 9 December 1942 and traveled from Detroit to San Diego for boot camp. His mechanical aptitude was noticed, and after earning his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, Private Wallace was assigned duty at the tank battalion training center at Camp Elliott. He deployed overseas in the summer of 1943, and joined Battery C, 2nd Special Weapons Battalion encamped at Wellington, New Zealand. Wallace probably crewed or serviced one of the outfit’s SPG halftrack vehicles – but this assignment would not last long.

On 15 October, PFC Wallace was transferred to Company A, First Battalion, 6th Marines. He had just over a week to acquaint himself with his new duties and new buddies; 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.

Unfortunately, Wallace’s reassignment had fatal consequences. His 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.

Wallace did not live to see the victory. At some point during the fighting on 22 November, he suffered fatal gunshot wounds to his head and chest.

The following day, PFC Wallace’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. Wallace was the sixteenth man buried in the row; a set of map coordinates (Betio, KH 283072, D-2 Map 14Oct43) was also recorded.

Unfortunately, the Marine Corps confused PFC Charles Eugene Wallace with PFC Charles Emra Wallace, also a member of the 6th Marines. Emra Wallace (of Easy Company) died of wounds suffered on Buariki, and was buried at sea from the USS Ormsby. Wires were crossed, and Eugene’s family received wrong information. In 1947, a note was added to his Casualty Card: “Next of kin notified 19 April 1944 body buried at sea. Body was not recovered but next of kin has not been told. Burial location of record is memorial grave.” [emphasis added]

Exactly how much information was eventually delivered to Wilma Wallace is not known. Graves Registration troops were unable to find Eugene’s grave after the war, and he was declared permanently non-recoverable in 1949.

The “Row D” trench lay undiscovered until 2019, when a team of archaeologists working with non-profit group History Flight excavated a suspected burial feature on Betio. Several dozen human remains were recovered – and on 18 September 2019, one set was positively identified as Eugene Wallace.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

Final burial pending wishes of next of kin.