John Robert Cox

Pharmacist’s Mate John Cox served as a medical corpsman attached to the Second Battalion, 8th Marines. For administrative purposes, he was carried on the rolls of Headquarters Company (and possibly served with the battalion’s aid station) but may have gone into combat with any one of the platoons of Easy, Fox, George, or How Company.

The amphibious assault on Betio, Tarawa atoll – Operation GALVANIC – commenced on 20 November 1943. The Second Battalion 8th Marines was given the job of assaulting the easternmost of three landing beaches – “Red 3” – and, once ashore, moving inland to quickly secure the airfield that covered much of the tiny island’s surface. A heavy and morale-boosting naval bombardment convinced many Marines that the task would be a simple one, and spirits were high at 0900 when their amphibious tractors started paddling for the beach.

The Japanese were quick to recover. Shells began bursting over the LVTs. “As the tractors neared the shore the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3-inch guns,” notes A Brief History of the 8th Marines. “Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach, battle losses increased dramatically.” Most of the beach defenses were still intact, and these were supported by row after row of pillboxes, rifle pits, and machine gun nests.

Corpsmen rushed along the beach and through the surf, treating casualties as best they could – and risking life and limb in the process. Five “Docs” from 2/8th Marines were wounded during the landing, and two were killed. Among the dead was John Cox.