Vernard Keith Campbell

On 31 January 1944, the First Battalion, 25th Marines made the first combat landings in the history of the 4th Marine Division with an amphibious assault on a series of small islands in northern Kwajalein. Charlie Company, under Captain Thomas E. Clarke, was ordered to conquer Mellu (codenamed “Ivan” Island) and eliminate any Japanese resistance, clearing the way for Marine artillery batteries to set up shop.

The landing beach, designated Blue 2, featured a formidable coral reef. Making matters worse, “heavy seas, heaped up by the wind, seemed enough to make the amphibian tractors hesitate,” in the words of LtCol. Robert Heinl. This combination of surf and reef proved disastrous to one LVT(2), and the big amphibian tractor flipped over and capsized, dumping half a platoon of Charlie Company men into the water. The remaining vehicles backed off and trundled around to an alternate beach, where Charlie Company landed at 1015. Mellu was secured in ninety minutes; seventeen Japanese were killed and two taken prisoner.

Private Vernard Campbell was the only C/1/25 Marine who failed to answer muster after the landing. He was one of the unfortunates aboard the capsized tractor, and was not seen again after the vehicle turned over. Although his company realized that Campbell had probably drowned, he was officially reported as missing in action. A finding of death was issued on 1 February 1945.