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Long Reads

Articles & Publications

Essays, investigations, and detailed analyses of the ongoing saga of America’s missing Marines.

Digital Articles

A Burial At Sea

Reconstructing the final moments of three men at Tarawa.

X-8

Fingerprints, Teeth, and Guadalcanal's Oldest Unknowns

CV-2

The discovery of the USS Lexington.

A Tale of Two Missing

Firsthand stories of final moments.

Identifying A Betio Cemetery

Correcting a caption with photographic evidence.

The Fourth Row

The creation, destruction, and rediscovery of a mass grave.

"Little Dunkirk"

A daring maneuver turns into a costly defeat for Marineson Guadalcanal.

Seahorse Marines

The Lallathin crew comes home.

Gavutu's Grave 13

What became of Bobby Lee Liston?

Silver Stars

Parallels in the lives of strangers.

When Jack Came Home

Attending the repatriation of Tarawa Marine Jack Prince.

One Day Along The Matanikau

October 9, 1942: a bloody day for the 7th Marines.

In Print

"Returning Arthur."

Leatherneck Magazine, September 2022

"A Long And Bloody Night."

Leatherneck Magazine, July 2022.

History Detective

Leatherneck Magazine, April 2022 (profile by Sara Bock)

"I Never Had Any Idea It Would Get Home."

Leatherneck Magazine, July 2021.

"Lay Bare A Few More Nerves."

Leatherneck Magazine, February 2021.

2Lt. Elwood Ray Bailey

Marine Corps History, Vol. 5 No. 1

Leaving Mac Behind: The Lost Marines of Guadalcanal

Between 1942 and 1944, nearly four hundred Marines virtually vanished in the jungles, seas, and skies of Guadalcanal. They were the victims of enemy ambushes and friendly fire, hard fighting and poor planning, their deaths witnessed by dozens or not at all. They were buried in field graves, in cemeteries as unknowns, or left where they fell. They were classified as “missing,” as “not recovered,” as “presumed dead.” And in the years that followed, their families wondered at their fates and how an administrative decision could close the book on sons, brothers, and husbands without healing the wounds left by their absence.

‘Leaving Mac Behind’ reconstructs the lives, last moments, and legacies of some of these men. Original records, eyewitness accounts, and recent discoveries shed new light on the lost graves of Guadalcanal’s missing Marines—and the ongoing efforts to bring them home.

Click the cover for more details

Photo Essays

Long Awaited Homecomings

Tarawa Funerals 2017–2018

by guest contributor Dean Laubach

A Camera in Combat

In Memory of Norm Hatch

by guest contributor Dean Laubach

Traver's Return

Chatham Cemetery 2016

photos by Missing Marines

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