John Merrill Tillman

John Tillman was born in Corbin, Oklahoma on 23 January 1923. He came from a large and somewhat complicated family headed by Walker and Edith Gertrude (Merrill) Tillman; by 1930, according to census records, the parents were divorced and had split the Tillman children between them. Walker died that year, and Edith moved to Nevada, settling in Reno in 1932. John spent nine years of his life in Reno, experiencing family legal troubles, marriages, and the death of a stepfather and a younger half-sister.

Few specific details of John’s own personal life are publicly available prior to his enlistment in the Marine Corps in October, 1941.

October 1941
30. John Merrill Tillman enlists in San Francisco, California.
31. Now Private Tillman, he travels to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, to join the 1st Recruit Battalion.

November – December 1941
Private Tillman is in boot training at MCRD San Diego when Pearl Harbor is attacked.

January 1942
3. With boot camp complete at last, Private Tillman is transferred to his first duty station. He doesn’t have to go far – the assignment is with the Second Casual Company, Guard Battalion of the Marine Corps Base in San Diego.

Casual Company duty is usually temporary, pending further assignment, and this is the case with Private Tillman. Sometime in February or March, he is transferred to the US Fleet Training Base at San Clemente Island, California.

April – July 1942
Tillman is on duty at San Clemente Island. He is examined and found qualified for promotion, and on 16 April is appointed a Private First Class – but on a specific warrant which will expire when he leaves the station.

August 1942

27. Tillman receives his transfer orders, and turns in his single stripe.
28. Now Private Tillman again, he travels to Camp Elliott, California to begin serving with Company C, 2nd Pioneer Battalion.

September 1942

Private Tillman passes this month training with his new outfit.
On 8 September, his company is re-designated as Company F, Second Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment. The 18th Marines are the engineering unit of the Second Marine Division; Second Battalion is comprised of “pioneers” who specialize in construction under combat conditions. (As opposed to First Battalion, the “engineers,” who specialize in blowing up obstacles.) Unfortunately, Tillman’s exact duties are not known.

October 1942
Elements of the 18th Marines are already overseas fighting the Japanese, and October marks 2/18’s turn.

On 18 October, Private Tillman embarks aboard the USS Matsonia, an old passenger liner converted to a troop transport. Stripped of her luxurious finishings, the ship is crowded and uncomfortable even before setting sail.
The following day, they put out to sea bound for New Zealand.

November 1942
Second Battalion, 18th Marines arrives in New Zealand, and goes into quarters at Camp Paekakariki. The camp is at McKay’s Crossing, about 25 miles from Wellington. Curious Marines make trips to the city on their weekend liberties. Most of their time, however, is spent in additional training.

December 1942
On Christmas Eve, Private Tillman lugs his gear aboard the USS President Adams, a Navy attack transport that has already made several trips to Guadalcanal. Although their course was likely kept confidential, it didn’t take much imagination to guess the final destination.
 Tillman spent Christmas aboard the transport, and on 30 December arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia.



January 1943

1. After a brief stopover at Noumea, the Adams sets sail again on New Year’s Day. The trip to Guadalcanal takes three days.
4. Tillman arrives in the combat zone. His company is attached to the 6th Marine Regiment (Reinforced) – a front-line infantry unit. The pioneers and other specialized troops make up the (Reinforced) part. After a few days of acclimatization, the 6th Marines relieved the worn-out 2nd Marines on 8 January.
10. The last big drive to push the Japanese off Guadalcanal begins. This combined Army and Marine effort is the first combat in which the 6th Marines, their attached units, and Private Tillman, will see during the war. The fighting is difficult, but the end of the campaign is finally in sight, and casualties are relatively few. F/2/18 muster rolls report only two men wounded and evacuated during the entire battle.

February 1943
9. Guadalcanal is officially declared “secure” as the Americans realize that the Japanese have evacuated the last of their fighting forces from the island under cover of night. A few isolated units and stragglers remain to be mopped up, but the battle is essentially over.
18. Private Tillman and the rest of F/2/18 board the USS Crescent City and set sail from the Solomons. The trip to New Zealand is uneventful; all hands look forward to their return and a hero’s welcome.
25. The Crescent City arrives in Wellington. Celebration ensues.
27. The 18th Marines receive word that they will not be returning to Camp Paekakariki. Instead, they will be housed at the smaller Judgeford Camp in Porirua. F/2/18 arrives and settles into their new accommodations on a civilian golf course.

March 1943
The 18th Marines are engaged in rest, recuperation, and reorganization. A rotating furlough schedule is established to give the men some well-earned time off.
8. Private Tillman’s furlough begins; for the next nine days he is off on his own, probably exploring and enjoying Wellington.
17. Furlough ends and Tillman returns to camp as ordered.
27. Private Tillman decides to take unauthorized liberty and sneaks out of camp.
28. Tillman returns to Judgeford at 0830, but his absence has been noted and he has been marked as AWOL overnight.
29. In an effort to curb the persistent problem of Marines ditching duty for a night in town, the CO of Tillman’s company hands down a relatively stiff sentence. Private Tillman is confined to the camp brig for the next five days.

April 1943
2. Tillman is released from confinement and restored to duty, having learned his lesson. He will never go AWOL again.
Aside from a two day spell in the camp dispensary for some minor illness or injury, the remainder of the month passes without incident.

May – July 1943
The 18th Marines are training for their next operation, including conditioning hikes, combat exercises, and improving the conditions at Judgeford. Private Tillman performs his duties as required, and no incidents are reported in the muster roll.

August 1943
4. Private Tillman reports to the battalion dispensary with another complaint and is kept in sick bay for the next six days. Many Marines contracted malaria while on Guadalcanal and suffered flare-ups while in New Zealand; this may have been the cause of Tillman’s trips to the dispensary.
13. An officer issues an order with which Private Tillman disagrees. He is written up for disobedience of orders.
14 – 18. Tillman is a “prisoner at large” while awaiting disciplinary action – performing his usual duties but under careful watch.
19. Tillman is found guilty of disobedience and is again sentenced to the brig, this time for four days.
23. Tillman is released from the brig and restored to duty.

September 1943

4. Tillman’s health complaints have grown worse; when he reports as sick on 4 September, he is packed off to Base Hospital #4 for treatment. He will be there for the next nine days.
13. Released from hospital and returned to duty.
18. The training schedule is starting to intensify, and the companies of the 8th Marines are practicing operations with the infantry units they’ll be attached to in the next operation. Tillman’s company is attached to the Second Battalion, 8th Marines.
23. Private Tillman is transferred out of F/2/18, the unit he has called home for the past year. Instead of going to another company in his battalion, or even in his regiment, he is sent to Company F, Second Battalion, 2nd Marines – a front-line rifle company. The reasons for this decision are not known, but might be related to the confrontation with his officer in August. Several other men are also transferred at this time.
28. After only five days with his new unit, Tillman is sent off on a two-day amphibious exercise. He has much to learn in a very short amount of time.

October 1943
The first half of the month is spent performing increasingly advanced training exercises and combat simulations. There is much speculation about the next objective – whens and wheres – and officers are told to be especially vigilant for loose talk around the camp and on liberty.

17. Private Tillman and F/2/2 embark aboard the USS Zeilin. The official word is that they will be participating in a large amphibious exercise elsewhere in New Zealand, then returning to camp. Few Marines are fooled by this pronouncement; neither are the young ladies of Wellington, who turns out en masse to bid a tearful farewell to their American friends, lovers, and in a few cases, husbands. The Zeilin sets a course for Hawke’s Bay and Wellington disappears over the horizon.

18 – 23. As promised, the Marines take part in a major training program at Hawke’s Bay. This will prove to be a rehearsal for the coming invasion of Betio.

24. The Zeilin joins a convoy sailing north, back into the combat zone.

November 1943
7. The Zeilin arrives at Efate in the New Hebrides Islands (now the Republic of Vanuatu). For the next five days, final preparations and training exercises are undertaken, and the Marines are allowed to go ashore. There is not much to do or see on Efate, however.

13. The convoy departs Efate and heads west.

14 – 19. Once safely at sea, the destination – codenamed “Helen” – is revealed. Officers are confident that the operation will be short and simple; the island is tiny, and will be pulverized by Navy sea and air forces before the Marines get ashore.

20 November. Invasion of Betio, Tarawa Atoll.

0359. The Zeilin arrives at the transport area off Betio and stops engines. Marines are already awake, and those with an appetite are filing down to the mess hall for chow. The steak and egg breakfast served to the 2nd Marine Division before Tarawa will become an invasion-day tradition throughout the Marine Corps.

0401 – 0403. Zeilin begins lowering her boats and amphibious tractors into the water. There are not enough tractors for the assault waves, but more are anticipated shortly.

0430. The tractors begin to arrive from a designated Landing Ship, Tank. Many have become lost in the darkness, and loading takes much longer than anticipated. Tillman’s F Company, designated an assault unit, climbs down the loading nets and scramble into the tractors as they become available. Once full, the tractors pull away from the Zeilin and begin circling out in the lagoon. Many men quickly become seasick.

0531. The first wave of tractors are dispatched to the rendezvous area, followed by subsequent waves at brief intervals.

0610. Enemy shellfire is observed falling among the transports and the landing vehicles.
0612. The sun rises, and the Navy bombardment intensifies.

0824. After an interminable wait, the first wave of tractors crosses the Line of Departure and heads for the beach. Private Tillman is bound for Beach Red 2, at the center of the island.

A few minutes after 0900, the first platoons of F/2/2 land on Red 2 right next to the prominent Burns-Philp pier. They began taking fire – and fatal casualties – even before they hit the beach. Within thirty minutes, the Second Battalion, 2nd Marines suffers nearly thirty percent casualties. Nineteen Marines of F/2/2 will lose their lives on 20 November alone.

Private John Merrill Tillman was killed by a gunshot wound in the chest at some point during the landing operation, or in an attempt to get further inland. His body lay in the field for the next two days before it could be safely buried. On 22 November, Tillman was the third man buried in the first row of “Beach Red Cemetery #2” – later “Cemetery 26.”

In March of 1946, personnel of the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company exhumed remains found in Cemetery 26. Few had any means of identification left – clothing had rotted and dog tags disintegrated in the sandy soil – and were designated as unknowns with “X” numbers. X-35 was disinterred, inspected, and reburied in the Lone Palm Cemetery on 21 March, in Plot 1, Row 2, Grave 18. Just under a year later, Lone Palm was exhumed and X-35 was transported to the US Army Mausoleum at Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaii.

On 17 June 1948, the case of X-35 was reviewed by technicians at the Central Identification Laboratory, Honolulu. They could estimate his weight, height, and approximate age, but lacked sufficient information to make a conclusive identification. When all avenues available were considered exhausted, X-35 was declared unidentifiable. He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on 22 March 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, the remains of X-35 were positively associated with John Tillman.


Tillman’s remains – now officially identified – were reinterred in Plot E, Grave 732 of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific: the very same grave he’d occupied for decades as an unknown. The marker over the grave now bears his name.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific