George Bernard Murray

George Murray was born in Arroyo Grande, California, on 6 November 1923. He spent most of his life in San Luis Obispo, joining his father Burnett on clam digging expeditions, helping mother Edith around the house, or playing with his sisters Thelma and Marian.

In 1935, Edith filed for a divorce and the family split apart. Burnett moved to Oakland; the rest of the Murrays stayed in Arroyo Grande where the kids were enrolled in school. During summer and winter breaks, George and his sisters traveled north to spend time with their father.

By 1942, George was out of Arroyo Grande High School, living in Oceano, and working in Pismo Beach. When he registered for Selective Service that summer, George stood six feet five inches tall and tipped scales at 200 pounds – an ideal candidate for military duty. And in the early months of 1943, the draft board came calling.

Nineteen-year-old George received his induction notice at home in Oceano, and traveled up to Fresno as instructed. He officially entered the Marine Corps on 25 February 1943 and was soon on his way to boot camp in San Diego. Private Murray earned his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor with the Fourth Recruit Battalion, and after some additional infantry training at Camp Elliott, deployed overseas with a replacement battalion bound for New Zealand. He also received a promotion to Private First Class.

Upon reaching the Antipodes, Murray joined Baker Company, 2nd Marines as a rifleman. He got a taste of liberty in Wellington, and more than a little training in amphibious tactics and assault techniques. The time spent in New Zealand passed all too quickly, and in October 1943 Murray boarded the USS Harry Lee and sailed for the New Hebrides. He arrived at Efate just in time to observe his twentieth birthday – but all hands were confined to the ship. They were bound for combat in the Gilbert Islands.

On 20 November 1943, the First Battalion 2nd Marines was assigned the role of regimental reserve. They would wait afloat while their sister battalions assaulted two beaches – codenamed Red One and Red Two – on a tiny island called Betio in the Tarawa atoll. The Navy promised to obliterate the island, and the more confident Marines assumed that the first waves would simply walk ashore and plant a flag.

Instead, they landed in a maelstrom of Japanese gunfire. The Second and Third Battalions were so badly torn up that the reserves were called up by 1030 hours. They planned to land on Beach Red Two and attack west towards Red One, but the shellfire was so intense that the plan went awry. Reinforcements landed piecemeal on both beaches and tried to organize as best they could.

Hundreds of Marines lost their lives in the first chaotic hours of the battle for Tarawa. PFC George Murray was one of the hundreds. Exactly how he met his fate is not known, nor is the location where he fell. Post-battle casualty reports noted that he suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, or chest, or possibly both.

After the battle, PFC Murray was reportedly buried in the East Division Cemetery, Row A, Grave #6 alongside many of his buddies from the 2nd Marines.

News of Murray’s death shocked Arroyo Grande; he was the first local boy to lose his life in the war. In response, his sister Thelma enlisted in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. She served through 1946, attaining the rank of sergeant.

When PFC Murray’s 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.

Human remains are frequently found on Betio even today. Thousands of men from America, Japan, and Korea died in the battle; the island itself is very small and heavily inhabited. Construction projects, gardening, and digging holes for outhouses commonly turns up debris left over from 1943. And, while some remains are simply discarded, others are handed over to the authorities.

In 2010, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) conducted an archaeological assessment mission on Betio. While there, members of the Kiribati National Police handed over human remains believed to be American. Unfortunately, the location where the remains were found – and, indeed, when they were found – was a mystery even to the policemen.

Without those vital clues, the remains sat in storage for nearly seven more years. Finally, in 2017 a chest radiograph and DNA samples from a family member identified George Bernard Murray. In August of that year, he returned at last to Oceano.

George Murray was buried in Arroyo Grande National Cemetery, near his mother, on 18 August 2017.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Arroyo Grande Cemetery, San Luis Obispo County, California