Randolph Allen

Randolph Allen was born in Kentucky on 24 March 1924. His family – six older siblings, plus parents George and Susie Allen – were farmers in Lawrence County for much of his youth; in the 1930s, they relocated to Bolt’s Fork, a tiny community outside the small town of Rush.

Very little information about Randolph’s early life is publicly known. By 1940, the 15-year-old “Bud” had completed seven years of school and was living at home with his parents, sisters Sallie and Mattie, and his little nephew Bobbie. When news of the Pearl Harbor attack reached Bolt’s Fork, Bud started a campaign of his own – petitioning his parents for permission to enlist. He must have been persuasive: the following month, George Allen gave consent for seventeen-year-old Bud to join the Marine Corps.

On 16 January 1942, Bud Allen traveled to Louisville to become a Marine. After completing boot camp at MCRD San Diego, he was assigned to Fox Company, Second Battalion, 2nd Marines. Private Allen trained with “F/2/2” in California for several months before deploying overseas to New Zealand – and then, after just a few days, on to the Solomon Islands.

Private Allen fought in the Guadalcanal Campaign from August 1942 to January 1943. He managed to escape death or injury despite spending months in the combat zone, and celebrated with his buddies when their regiment arrived in New Zealand for a period of rest and recuperation.

Bud Allen demonstrated the necessary efficiency, professionalism, and maturity for promotion to Private First Class, and received his first stripe on 1 April 1943. He very nearly lost it again: just two days later, Allen was reported as absent over leave and did not return to his post until 8 April. Instead of losing his rating, Allen spent ten days in the brig – solitary confinement on bread and water – and forfeited $15 of his hard-earned monthly pay. The punishment was effective: Allen his record clean thereafter.

The intensity of training increased in the summer months of 1943, including field exercises, long conditioning hikes, amphibious maneuvers, and landing practice. In mid-October, Allen and his buddies in the Second Battalion boarded the USS Zeilin for a large-scale training exercise. It was clearly a rehearsal for another combat operation, and when the ships departed from New Zealand in early November, there was much speculation about where and what the next target would be.

On 20 November 1943, the Second Battalion 2nd Marines was assigned the task of spearheading the assault on Betio’s Red Beach Two. PFC Allen’s Fox Company would land on the eastern half of the beach, fight their way inland, and help secure a vital airfield. If all went according to plan, they would walk ashore standing up and have the situation in hand by evening.

Unfortunately, the plan went right out the window in the first few minutes of the assault. Extremely heavy Japanese fire tore into the amphibian tractors carrying the Marines ashore; many of the vehicles never even reached the beach. The 2nd Marines suffered an astonishing number of casualties in moments; they managed to secure a toehold on the beach, but facing withering firepower, few managed to get over the sea wall and into the Japanese defenses beyond.

PFC Randolph Allen was one of nineteen Fox Company Marines to lose his life on the first day of the battle. In the immediate aftermath, nobody knew exactly what had happened to him – or where exactly his body lay. “BURIAL DETAILS UNKNOWN” reported his battalion muster roll, while a USMC casualty report stated “Buried in Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. Body not recovered.”

A marker for Bud Allen was eventually emplaced in “Cemetery 33” – but this was only a memorial. The real location of his grave would not be known for another seventy years.

In November 2013 – almost exactly the seventieth anniversary of Bud Allen’s death – an archaeological team from History Flight began excavating a site believed to contain human remains. Previous finds in the vicinity – including World War II-era Marine Corps equipment – raised the possibility of an isolated burial outside the bounds of any known cemetery.

Beneath the courtyard of a housing project, the archaeologists found the remains of five individuals, all piled together as if locked in a death struggle. Four wore Japanese helmets, boots, or gear – but the fifth, still wearing the remains of Marine boondockers, had identification tags around his neck:

ALLEN, R
344151
USMC

From there, a possible story was pieced together. It was now clear that Bud Allen survived to reach the shore, and was one of the few Marines to venture over the sea wall and advance inland. He met his end in a shallow crater or hastily-dug foxhole, along with four Japanese soldiers – any of whom he may have killed, or may have killed him. Blackened sand and the posture of two Japanese fighters suggested the presence of a flamethrower.

In the end, the History Flight team concluded that all five men were buried right where they fell in 1943 – either by the explosion of a heavy shell or by the simple expedient of covering up exposed Japanese remains with bulldozers. Randolph Allen had never been found by any burial party.

The remains of PFC Allen were handed over to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in December 2013, and the formal identification was completed on 17 June 2014. Randolph Allen was returned home to the United States and given a burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing
Boyd County War Memorial, Summit, Kentucky
Rose Hill Burial Park & Mausoleum, Ashland, Kentucky

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery