Richard Woytisek Vincent

Richard Vincent was born in New York City, New York, on 25 January 1918. He was the second and youngest son born to Walter and Jennie (Krtil) Vincent of Westfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in the Bay State with his older brother Robert.

Richard graduated from Westfield High School in 1937, and entered Massachusetts State College at Amherst. He kept a busy schedule as vice president of Phi Sigma Kappa and an active member of the Fernald Entomology Club. “Ike” Vincent discovered an appreciation for insects, declared his major in entomology, and earned his bachelor’s degree with the class of 1941.

Like thousands of other American men, Richard Vincent became eligible for Selective Service in October 1940 and filled out the required registration forms during his senior year at Amherst. Rather than wait to be called, however, he volunteered for the Marine Corps Reserve and went to active duty on 6 May 1941 – immediately after completing his college degree. (He simplified his Polish middle name around this time; military records substitute “William” for “Woytisek.”)

Vincent went through boot camp at Parris Island and Officer Candidate School at Quantico. He earned his commission as a second lieutenant on 4 April 1942 and was assigned to duty with the First Separate Engineer Company at New River, North Carolina. Before departing for his post, Vincent married Jeanette Audrey Nightingale. The ceremony took place in Washington, DC on 2 May 1942.

From New River, Lieutenant Vincent traveled to California where he became a platoon leader in Company B, Second Engineer Battalion – part of the 2nd Marine Division. He deployed to the Pacific and participated in the Guadalcanal campaign, supporting the combat operations of the 8th Marines. Vincent acquitted himself well in action, and received a promotion to First Lieutenant effective 1 January 1943. However, he fell victim to a tiny mosquito, and recurring bouts of malaria would trouble him for the next several months.

After Guadalcanal, Lieutenant Vincent’s company traveled to New Zealand to refit, reorganize, and adapt to their new designation as the First Battalion, 18th Marines. In July 1943, Vincent was transferred out of Baker Company and into Dog Company, Second Battalion – a pioneer outfit that also served on Guadalcanal. He took command of the company’s Third Platoon.

Training intensified as 1943 wore on, and it became evident that a new operation was soon approaching. Company D/2/18 began operating closely with units of the 2nd Marines, and the men were told they would act in support of those assault troops when they reached shore on their next beachhead. Lieutenant Vincent was placed in command of a 63-man detachment that would land with the Third Battalion, 2nd Marines at a strip of sand designated Red Beach One on an island codenamed “HELEN.”

In October 1943, Vincent and his men boarded the USS Arthur Middleton and sailed for Operation GALVANIC. At around this time, his promotion to the rank of captain was approved by Headquarters Marine Corps – but the news was slow to reach the front, and Richard Vincent never had a chance to pin on his new insigna.

Richard Vincent led his detachment of pioneers ashore on Red Beach One on the morning of 20 November 1943. They rode their LVTs straight into the teeth of some of the heaviest gunfire Marines encountered during the Pacific war. Assault troops and pioneers alike were cut down in waves; some never even made it to dry land.

Corporal William Bennett of D/2/18 related the fate of Vincent’s detachment to author Brent Peterson in “Once Upon A Lifetime.”

[Lieutenant] Simonson asked if they had seen Lieutenant Vincent and his men that went ashore with K/3/2. Ashurst and Sobolewski were silent, and Ashurst rubbed his face and they started to sob. “They’re all dead,” Sobolewski mumbled. “What do you mean ‘all’? Seng? Montague? Roads?” Sobolewski nodded his head affirmatively. “We found them on Red 1 this morning on the way over. They are all lying right where they died. They never even got off the beach the first day.

The survivors D Company grabbed shovels and walked along the beach to take care of their fallen buddies. Bennett continues:

At the west end of Red Beach 2, the shoreline took a 90 degree turn to the left where the east end of Red Beach 1 began. The area to their left was “The Pocket” where snoke still rose from the smoldering rubble…. A knocked out LVT had “#15 Worried Mind” painted on the side. Three dead Marines lay on the sand next to it. Sobolewski said “They are right up ahead, before you come to the privy piers.”


Bill focused on clumps of bodies on the sand. Sobolewski came to the first body; it was Lieutenant Vincent. The men fanned out in groups of three or four and began identifying them. Bill heard “Here’s Larson” and “McKinney is over here,” from the others. A pile of five Marines slumped over a .30 caliber machine gun. They were all facing up a slope in the sand that rose three feet to a somewhat level beach. Their boots were only 10 feet from the water.

The fallen men were buried together – with Richard Vincent in the first grave of what was called, appropriately, the D/2/18 Cemetery.

The 18th Marines cemetery – renamed “Cemetery 20” and marked with a giant memorial cross – was located by the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company in 1946. Fifteen of sixteen men buried there were recovered and identified – everyone except Richard Vincent. He was declared non-recoverable in 1949.

In the decades that followed, a number of theories were put forward as to why Captain Vincent’s grave was not found. His grave was at the end of the row; had it simply been missed by the GRS team? Or, because he was the first to be buried, was his grave deeper than the others?

The mystery was solved, most unexpectedly, in 2013 when non-profit group History Flight found the remains of a wooden coffin in the vicinity of an entirely different cemetery. Inside were the bones of a man wrapped in the remnants of a poncho, wearing Marine Corps issued gear, and carrying ammunition for a .45 caliber sidearm. Two Japanese bullets – possibly the ones that killed him – were among the remains, as was an identification tag bearing the name R W VINCENT.

The remains were handed over to JPAC for further action, and in 2014 they were determined to be those of Captain Richard W. Vincent.

It now seems that a construction crew working on Betio during the war inadvertently disturbed or uncovered Captain Vincent’s remains. His body was collected, placed in a purpose-built coffin, and reburied at “Cemetery 33” – the main cemetery on Betio. Many graves in Cemetery 33 were never found after the war; several remains from that area have been returned home thanks to the efforts of History Flight personnel.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Pine Hill Cemetery, Westfield, MA