Frank Louis Masoni

Frank Masoni was born on his family’s farm in Gilroy, California, on 29 October 1922 – the first of four boys raised by Italian immigrants Salvador and Clorinda Masoni. He spent most of his life in Gilroy, attending Rucker Elementary, St. Mary’s School, and Gilroy High. Frank was also an accomplished athlete and member of the school’s track team – his six-foot stature was ideal for running high hurdles.

The Masoni boys worked through the Depression years; local orchards needed farm labor, and Frank developed a sharp eye shooting at the birds who raided the plum trees. He took a job at the Pollyanna Bakery in Gilroy while still in high school, and rose from bread slicer to delivery boy and finally night baker.

In the summer of 1942, Frank registered for Selective Service. He continued working at the bakery for several more months, but eventually made the difficult decision to leave friends and family behind and enter the armed forces.

On 14 October 1942, Frank Masoni traveled to San Francisco and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. He returned to Gilroy a few weeks later on “boot leave,” showing off his new uniform and the weapons qualifications he’d earned in San Diego – including the silver Maltese cross of a rifle sharpshooter. The visit was all too brief, and the family accompanied Frank to the bus depot. “They said their goodbyes and Frank went off to service,” said Lanna Sandoval, Frank’s niece. “My dad [Richard Masoni, the youngest brother] never realized it could have been the last time he saw him. He never knew at that moment. And they said ‘bye, and he thought he’d see him when he got back.”

Although Private Masoni was more than competent with a rifle, the Marine Corps took one look at his work history and promoted him to the rank of Assistant Cook – equivalent to a Private First Class. Assignment to the 16th Replacement Battalion soon followed, and by spring Frank was on his way overseas. He arrived in New Zealand, and on 15 May 1943 joined Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp Paekakariki.

The 8th Marines were combat veterans of Guadalcanal, and Assistant Cook Masoni had his work cut out fitting in with the more experienced Marines. His professional background must have helped a great deal, and he kept a supply of recipes on hand – including a spice cake that could feed up to 300 hungry Marines. In addition to cooking three meals a day for his company, Masoni was also expected to take part in training exercises ranging from combat simulations to conditioning hikes and amphibious landing practice. For respite, there were occasional liberties in the nearby city of Wellington.

In October 1943, the 8th Marines boarded transports at Wellington for a final round of training exercises. When the ships headed out to sea instead of returning to town, the Marines aboard began to realize that the rumors were true: they were bound for combat.

The amphibious assault on Betio, Tarawa atoll – Operation GALVANIC – commenced on 20 November 1943. The Second Battalion 8th Marines was given the job of assaulting the easternmost of three landing beaches – “Red 3” – and, once ashore, moving inland to quickly secure the airfield that covered much of the tiny island’s surface. A heavy and morale-boosting naval bombardment convinced many Marines that the task would be a simple one, and spirits were high at 0900 when their amphibious tractors started paddling for the beach.

The Japanese were quick to recover. Shells began bursting over the LVTs. “As the tractors neared the shore the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3-inch guns,” notes A Brief History of the 8th Marines. “Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach, battle losses increased dramatically.” Most of the beach defenses were still intact, and these were supported by row after row of pillboxes, rifle pits, and machine gun nests.

The Second Battalion, and then the Third Battalion, tried in vain to break through the Japanese defenses, suffering heavy casualties in every attempt. By evening, they were barely clinging to a sliver of beachhead, and the shocked survivors dug in among the bodies of the dead.

Frank Masoni survived the landing, the first day, and the first night of combat on Tarawa. He was killed in action on 21 November 1943 – the time, location, and cause of his death are no longer known.

Nor was there any concrete information regarding the disposition of his remains. Masoni was reportedly interred in the “Division Cemetery, Tarawa” – but there were several “Division Cemeteries,” and this information was seemingly applied as a catch-all for any Marine whose body was not identifiable.

In 1944, Seabees from the Tarawa garrison force rebuilt the old Marine cemeteries into beautified memorials. They put a marker for Frank Masoni in Cemetery 11  (Plot 1, Row 3, Grave 9) but this was purely commemorative; his real burial place was entirely unknown.

The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company arrived at Betio in 1946 and set to work exhuming the memorial cemeteries built on top of the original burial grounds. Identification of remains was a serious challenge, and hundreds of men were declared non-recoverable in 1949. Among them was Assistant Cook Masoni.

Remains that were recovered but not identified were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Many decades later,  a DPAA directive ordered renewed efforts to discover their names. “Betio Unknown X-210” was exhumed from Section E, Grave 846, and sent to a forensic laboratory for analysis. This unknown was originally recovered from “Cemetery 33“ – formerly “East Division Cemetery” near the airfield, once the largest burial ground on Betio.

While X-210 had stumped investigators in the 1940s, modern technology – including advanced dental and anthropological analysis, and the comparison of chest radiographs – solved the mystery. After his death in battle, Frank Masoni had been brought to the East Division Cemetery for burial as an unknown. After three different forensic examinations in three different times, he was finally matched to X-210 in August 2017.

Masoni was returned to his family for burial – and his youngest brother, Richard, was able to welcome him home.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Gavilan Hills Memorial Park, Gilroy, California