Manuel Menendez

Manuel Menendez was born in Langeloth, Pennsylvania on 21 December 1922. He was one of seven children born to Nicholas and Elena Candanedo Menendez, formerly of Asturias in northern Spain. The family moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey when Manuel was little – but tragedy followed with Nick’s death in the late 1920s. Elena, a diminutive woman who never quite mastered English, was left to support her family by working in a dress factory.

The Menendez children found jobs and pitched in to help. Before the war, Manuel worked for the Heil truck company at their new factory and service center in Hillside.

Manuel volunteered for service in the Marine Corps on 6 November 1942; he traveled to New York City to enlist. From there, he was sent to Parris Island for boot camp and New River for infantry training. In January 1943, Private Lukie crossed the country with the 5th Replacement Battalion, and sailed for overseas duty. He arrived in New Zealand that spring and was assigned to  King Company, Third Battalion, 2nd Marines. He trained with “K/3/2” at Paekakariki for the next several months, and earned a promotion to Private First Class.

In October, Menendez and his company boarded the USS Arthur Middleton and departed New Zealand for their next operation – the invasion of Tarawa.

On 20 November 1943, the Third Battalion 2nd Marines was assigned the task of spearheading the assault on Betio’s Red Beach One. They were subjected to devastating fire from the moment they crossed the island’s coral reef, and suffered heavy casualties while coming ashore and on the beach itself.

“On approaching the beach, the first two waves of LVTs were hit by machine gun and anti-boat gun fire from beaches Red 1 and 2 and Beach Green firing over the point,” reads an official report. “This fire damaged several LVTs and caused severe casualties. The assault waves landed generally at about 0910. The left half of Company K was partially stopped about 150 yards from the beach by anti-boat fire and suffered very heavy casualties. The remainder of Company K and Company I were also heavily hit by machine guns both in LVTs and while disembarking. The log barricade in front of Company I offered some cover and an opportunity to organize, but Company K had no cover and many of those who made the beach were hit on the flat terrain.”

Exactly what happened to PFC Menendez will never be known. He was killed in action on 20 November 1943 – while his death was confirmed, no eyewitness statements survive to pass along any further details.

Because none of the remains buried on Betio after the battle could be identified as PFC Menendez, a memorial marker was placed in Cemetery 11, Grave 4, Row 2, Plot 3. His family was told that his remains were not recoverable; they sadly concluded that Manuel had washed out to sea and would never be seen again.

The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company exhumed the Betio cemeteries in 1946. They were perplexed and dismayed to find that many of the cemeteries – including Cemetery 11 – were only memorials; the individual markers bore no connection to remains buried beneath or nearby. When they did eventually locate skeletal remains, very few had any sort of identification.

One set of remains, designated “Betio X-168,” was exhumed from Cemetery 33 in March 1946. The 604th carefully noted the dead man’s meager belongings – $13 in currency, assorted New Zealand coins, a pocket knife, some keys, and a pair of brass officer’s insignia. None of this helped identify the remains, so “Unknown 2nd Lieutenant” was was reburied in Lone Palm Cemetery to await transport back to Hawaii.

In January 1948, “X-168” was laid out on a laboratory table in Honolulu and examined by trained anthropologists. Although they were able to complete a detailed dental chart, estimate vital statistics, and even describe physical appearance, the individual’s identity eluded them. He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Plot F Grave 1112.

In October 2016, a DPAA directive led to the exhumation of unidentified remains in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Using modern identification methods – including a reexamination of dental charts and chest radiographs – the remains of X-168 were positively identified. The “Unknown 2nd Lieutenant” was really PFC Manuel Menendez.

Menendez was officially identified on 28 August 2017.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery

See Dean Laubach’s photographs of Manuel Menendez’s repatriation.