Harry Arnold Carlsen

Horace Allen Carlsen was born on 4 January 1912, one of seven children raised by James and Amalia Carlsen of Brookfield, Illinois. He spent most of his life in Cook County: attending school, finding work, and meeting his future wife, Jarmila “Cheri” Fisera, whom he married in 1933.

Carlsen discovered his mechanical aptitude at a young age. In 1927, fifteen-year-old “Harry” took a job as a mechanic’s helper at a Lincoln Motors repair shop in LaGrange, Illinois. At seventeen, he quit his junior year in favor of a machinist’s trade school. The move paid off: in 1933, the Emil Denemark Cadillac dealership in Chicago hired him on as their chief mechanic. In the years that followed, Carlsen worked on Caddies, Pontiacs, and Buicks, always as a chief mechanic running the shop. Besides fixing engines, Carlsen could weld, operate a crane, and had some experience with boats. “An exceptionally outstanding mechanic,” his military peers would later note, “experienced welder, expert troubleshooter & machine shop worker [with a] full knowledge of boats [and] motors.”

Carlsen’s career was on the rise; his relationship, however, was on the rocks. On 10 December 1941 – just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor – he and Jarmila ended their eight-year marriage. Almost immediately, Carlsen left Illinois for Los Angeles – aiming, it seems, to make a fresh start.

He did so in dramatic fashion by enlisting in the Marine Corps on 22 December 1941.

Private Carlsen went through boot camp at San Diego during the winter of 1941-1942. He was one of the oldest – if not the oldest – men in his recruit platoon: Carlsen turned thirty on the drill field, while many of his comrades were just in their teens. He performed well on the rifle range, earning a sharpshooter’s badge, and received his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem in January 1942.

Carlsen’s extensive civilian experience was not forgotten by the Marine Corps. Immediately upon completing boot camp, he was rated a Specialist 5th Class (Mechanic) and detailed to Company A, Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion, part of the 2nd Marine Division service troops organizing at Camp Elliott. The “Alligators” fascinated Carlsen, and he set about learning all he could about the massive machines. Promotions quickly followed: Private First Class in February of 1942; corporal in March, and sergeant in April. By May, his commanding officers were recommending promotion to Staff Sergeant:

“Sergeant Carlsen is an excellent mechanic, with a varied knowledge of motors, maintenance, and repairs. He is a qualified maintenance instructor in Higgins landing boats and Amphibian Tractors, and is a qualified instructor in Amphibian Tractor Operations…. Sergeant Carlsen has had a tremendous amount of experience prior to his entering the Marine Corps. He is an A-1 mechanic on any gasoline motor. He is an excellent machinist with a great deal of varied experience, such as reboring, pin fitting, honing, and lathe work. He has a full knowledge of mechanics, machine shop work, and welding that makes him especially valuable to this organization, to the Quartermaster Department, and to the Marine Corps.”

The promotion was secured.

Carlsen also proved to be an adept leader. As the chief of the company’s repair section, he had a number of younger Marines to instruct, train, and keep in line. A fitness report from 1942 grades his skills in “handling enlisted men, training troops, and tactical handling of troops” as “excellent.” Carlsen was fond of the men he led, and affectionately called them “Little Beans.”

In the summer of 1942, the Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion deployed overseas to the Solomon Islands to support the Guadalcanal campaign. Carlsen was posted to the unit’s rear echelon; he did not set foot on Guadalcanal but performed an endless litany of repair jobs at Espiritu Santo. The quality of his work remained high, and Carlsen received a promotion to Technical Sergeant in early 1943.

As his battalion alternately trained and relaxed in New Zealand, Harry Carlsen embodied the ideal qualities of an amphtrac NCO. In the five-month span from April to September 1943, company commander Captain John T. O’Neill observed that Carlsen was “outstanding” in almost every respect – and reflected as much by awarding him top marks in another fitness report. O’Neill “particularly desired” to have Carlsen in his command, and recommended advancement to Master Technical Sergeant.

By the fall of 1943, however, the amphtracs were busily preparing for battle. Their “Alligators” were originally intended for supply and support duties, not front-line combat. Plans for the upcoming operation, however, called for the tractors to land assault troops in the first waves – under direct enemy fire. Carlsen and his “Little Beans” worked hard to keep their vehicles in good running order – and, in many cases, added machine gun mounts. The LVTs were virtually unarmored, so the mechanics scrounged up extra sheet metal and hauled it back to camp. Carlsen probably helped weld this ad-hoc armor plating to the cabs of his company vehicles. The effect was more psychological than practical, but even the thin armor was better than nothing.

In late October, TSgt. Carlsen boarded the USS Virgo and sailed from New Zealand.

On 20 November 1943, the 2nd Marine Division assaulted the tiny island of Betio in the Tarawa atoll. The lead waves of Marines were landed by amphibian tractors – many of them from Bud Carlsen’s Company A. Fifteen tractors departed the Virgo early that morning. Ten headed for the USS Zeilin (collecting troops from 2/2nd Marines assigned to hit Red Beach 2) and five went to the USS Heywood (picking up 2/8th Marines and attacking Red Beach 3).

It is not known which group included Bud Carlsen, or which vehicle he rode to Betio. It seems likely that his tractor was disabled on the approach or shortly after running aground, for Carlsen wound up on the sand of one of the Red Beaches. He stepped into a killing field, and soon fell dead from bullet wounds in his head and abdomen.

In February 1944, Amelia Carlsen received a letter from Chaplain Douglas Vernon that shed some light on Bud’s final moments.

At the beginning of our assault in the battle of Tarawa, your son landed with our first troops. He climbed out of the tractor in which he had come ashore. While he was rushing a Japanese machine gun emplacement, the enemy fire killed him instantly.

His body is buried in Grave No. 31, Row B, East Division Cemetery. A Marine chaplain read the burial rites of our Christian faith at that time…. The brave leadership of his charge inspired those who followed to win the Battle of Tarawa.

Carlsen’s body was buried in a long trench in the largest cemetery on Betio. The location was marked with a rough cross and recorded in his service record book after his surviving buddies left the island.

When TSGT Carlsen’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.

Decades later, a DPAA directive led to the exhumation of unidentified remains in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Using modern identification methods, including DNA comparison from his niece Nancy Spellman, Carlsen’s was positively identified as “Betio X-82.” Additional remains found at Betio by non-profit group History Flight in 2013 were also associated with X-82.

On 4 June 2018, Harry Carlsen was officially accounted for. Tragically, Nancy Spellman passed away in 2011 – never knowing that her dedication and DNA sample would finally bring her uncle home.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery