Richard Malcolm Stewary
PFC Richard M. Stewart served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 8th Marines.
He was killed in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 20 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 456124
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
December 6, 1919
at Prairie Creek, Alberta, CA
Parents
James Kirk Stewart
Florence Irene (Bugbee) Stewart
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Aluminum Company of America
Service Life
Entered Service
September 11, 1942
at San Francisco, CA
Home Of Record
201 Washington Street
Vancouver, WA
Next Of Kin
Wife, Mrs. Jeanette (Williams) Stewart
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
F/2/8th Marines
Campaigns Served
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
PFC Richard Stewart served with Fox Company, 8th Marines during the battle for Tarawa.
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.
PFC Stewart was among those killed in action on the first day of the battle. His cause of death was listed as “gunshot wounds” – no other specifics are known.
Burial Information or Disposition
On 22 November 1943, with the battle still raging on the other side of the airfield, a bulldozer scooped out a trench near the base of Betio’s central pier. Burial parties collected bodies from the area around Beach Red 3 and brought them to this trench, which was alternately designated “Division Cemetery #3” or “Central Division Cemetery, 8th Marines #2.” Forty men were laid down side by side – and one of them was identified as PFC Richard Stewart.
Stewart’s burial ground was “beautified” by Navy garrison troops in 1944 and renamed Cemetery 27. A single large cross was put up and the names of the fallen were painted on a plaque nearby. When the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company arrived to exhume the battle casualties in 1946, however, they found not a trace of any remains beneath the monument – nor anywhere nearby. After days of searching in vain, they gave up and declared the 40 men permanently nonrecoverable.
In 2015, the non-profit group History Flight conducted an archaeological dig at a shipyard on Betio. This expedition, the result of years of research and data supplied by GPR and a cadaver dog, found the original burial trench beneath a parking lot – quite some distance from the memorial location. Several dozen remains were found, and most have since been identified. Stewart, however, is not among them; it is not clear if his remains were disturbed or destroyed in the years between the battle and the discovery of Cemetery 27, or if he is still awaiting sufficient evidence to complete identification work.
In addition to the Cemetery 27 plaque, Richard Stewart had a memorial marker in Cemetery 33, Plot 1, Row 1, Grave 2.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of wife, Mrs. Jeanette Stewart.
Location Of Loss
Stewart’s battalion landed on and fought in the vicinity of Beach Red 3.
