James William Mulligan
Private James W. “Red” Mulligan served with served with the Second Tank Battalion, Company C (Medium).
He was reported missing in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 20 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 440093
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
December 10, 1921
at Montclair, NJ
Parents
James Aloysius Mulligan
Mary (Keily) Mulligan
Education
Immaculate Conception High (1939)
Occupation & Employer
Westinghouse Electrical Company
Service Life
Entered Service
August 20, 1942
at New York, NY
Home Of Record
166 Valley Road
Montclair, NJ
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Mary Mulligan
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
2nd Tank Battalion
Company C (Medium)
Campaigns Served
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Private James “Red” Mulligan served with Second Platoon,Company C (Medium), 2nd Tank Battalion, during the Tarawa campaign. His exact role and responsibilities in the unit are not known.
On 20 November 1943, Charlie Company launched three platoons of M4A2 medium tanks from the USS Ashland in support of landing operations on the island of Betio. Reconnaissance guides led the way through the water on foot, while support personnel found themselves mixed up with the assault infantry. The Second Platoon, including Private Mulligan, was assigned to attack Red Beach 2. Unfortunately, their LCVPs stopped a thousand yards from shore, and the tankers had to slog through the water under fire. “I saw death all around me,” recalled Willliam “Scot” Kinsman. “Marines were floating back and forth like birch wood wrapped up in barbed wire, purple, bloated and unrecognizable. These were Marines from the first assault. I knew I was going to die.”
Kinman hugged the side of a long pier and inched his way to shore, praying hard. He finally reached the sand and was digging a foxhole with his hands when he heard a familiar voice.
I heard my buddy, Red Mulligan, call out to me, "Scot, I'm hit!" I spotted him about five feet from shore with a fountain of blood coming out of the water from his body. I called to him and said, "Red, you can make it."
"No, I can't" he replied. I reached in my back pocket and got my New Testament Gideon Bible. I said, "Red, you can make it. Grab this Bible," and I threw it to him. He crawled out of the water into my foxhole. I dug another one adjacent to it.
There was blood on his buttocks. I cut his belt and pulled back his trousers. There was a clean bullet hole in the buttocks. I took his first aid kit and put sulfa on it with a large bandage. I then proceeded to clean my rifle as it was loaded with sand, to make it operable.
The ebb and flow of battle pulled Kinman away from Mulligan’s foxhole. When he returned, the tide was in and Marine bodies were floating in the surf. A few wounded men called weakly for help, and Kinman helped float them to safety on rafts made of life belts. He worked his way back to his friend, but found Mulligan motionless: Red had bled to death. A corpsman explained that the “fountain” of blood meant a severed artery; there was nothing Kinman could have done.
Although the nature of Mulligan’s wound differs by source – a bullet through the femoral artery, a shot in the abdomen, or shrapnel in the chest – the end result was the same. He was reported killed in action as of 20 November 1943, with the final disposition of his remains unknown.
Burial Information or Disposition
None reported; identifiable remains not recovered.
A memorial marker was erected in Cemetery 11, Plot 5, Row 2, Grave 3.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Mary Mulligan.
Location Of Loss
Private Mulligan was killed in the vicinity of Betio’s Beach Red 2.
