The Fourth Row
How a row of thirty graves on Betio was laid out and then lost, forgotten and then found.
How a row of thirty graves on Betio was laid out and then lost, forgotten and then found.
This morning, the DPAA announced that PFC Paul David Gilman has been accounted for as of 17 May 2018. Paul was born on 11 January… Read More »Accounted For: PFC Paul David Gilman
They were not friends in life, these men. They were not even passing strangers. Each spent the short arc of his life in total ignorance of the other’s existence. Outwardly, they had little in common – a small, stolid Massachusetts Yankee and a tall, imposing blacksmith’s son from Louisiana – save the Marine uniform both wore with pride from 1940 until their deaths on remote Pacific islands, a world away from Springfield and Chatham. Yet they shared a selfless inner quality that shone through in the final hours and minutes of their lives – and their deaths would mark the start of seven decades of uncertainty for two families far apart.
PFC Francis E. Drake, Jr. and Second Lieutenant Harvel L. Moore
A couple of site updates to ring in the new year. First and most importantly: the number of unaccounted-for Marines has just decreased by five.… Read More »State of the Site Update