Robert Franklin Butler, Jr.
Corporal Robert F. Butler, Jr. served with Item Company, Third Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment.
He was killed in action at Bougainville on 9 December 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 417988
Current Status
Remains not recovered.
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
March 22, 1922
at Port Arthur, TX
Parents
Robert Frank Butler
Olive M. (Klein) Butler
later Olive Decker
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
The Texas Company (Texaco)
Service Life
Entered Service
August 4, 1942
at San Antonio, TX
Home Of Record
2623 Craigmont Avenue
Houston, TX
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Olive Decker
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
I/3/1st Paramarines
Campaigns Served
Bougainville
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Corporal Robert Butler served as a Paramarine NCO in the Bougainville campaign.
A Paramarine force (consisting of the Third Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment, plus HQ and Weapons Companies) arrived at Bougainville on 4 December 1943 and were quickly fed into the Island Defensive Line atop and elevation called “Hill 1000.” Patrols discovered a spur “fortified by nature: matted jungle for concealment, gullies to impair passage, steep slopes to discourage everything,” on 7 December, but Japanese patrols were just as active and determined to keep the Marines off the ridge. Small, close-range engagements erupted as these groups ambushed each other in the dense jungle:
Again on the 9th, a patrol from the Third Parachute Battalion was ambushed. On that date a decision was reached to straighten out a re-entrant into the line at the boundaries of Companies "I" and "K." A patrol from Company "I" was sent forward to reconnoiter. This patrol was ambushed by about eight Japanese with three MGs in hastily constructed entrenchments.... The [Marine] patrol withdrew with one man missing. A second patrol encountered the enemy in the same location. One Marine was killed and the patrol withdrew.
In addition to the patrols, the Third Parachute Battalion staged an assault on the spur – which quickly became known as “Hellzapoppin’ Ridge.” The ninth of December was particularly harrowing for the Paramarines: several were killed or mortally wounded, and more than a dozen men failed to return to their lines after the day’s action.
One of the missing was Corporal Robert Butler.
Burial Information or Disposition
The terrain around “Hellzapoppin’ Ridge” was not fully secured until 18 December. Many of those who fell in the repeated attacks on the hill could not be recovered, and a lieutenant from the 21st Marines recalled how “after a few days, they [dead Paramarines] had become very unpleasant reminders of what faced us as we crawled forward, in many instances, right next to them.”
As soon as the area was secured, burial parties moved in to collect the dead. Eleven men from the Third Parachute Battalion were found, identified, and buried in the field on 18 December. It would take two more days to locate Corporal Butler – he was dead, killed by a gunshot wound in the head. Battalion record keepers updated the muster roll accordingly.
Although the muster roll noted “remains interred unknown,” Butler’s Marine Corps casualty card includes more information:
“Body found in enemy territory & it was impossible to recover body for interment due to the presence of the enemy.”
To date, it is not known if Robert Butler’s body was ever recovered from the vicinity of Hellzapoppin’ Ridge. His comrades who died nearby wound up in Finschhafen Cemetery #5; possibly Butler did, too, as an unknown. Or he may still lie where he fell in December 1943.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Olive K. Decker.
Location Of Loss
Approximate location of Hill 1000 / Hellzapoppin’ Ridge.
