Tarawa Talk

After five years, the Department of Defense finally acted on Chief Rick Stone's original recommendations ,while a member of DoD, and began exhumation of the Tarawa "Unknowns" from the Punchbowl on 2 October 2016.  Disinterment of the Tarawa Unknowns was completed on 27 March 2017.  To date, 49 Unknowns have been identified from the Punchbowl and 54 sets of remains recovered from the Punchbowl are stored in cardboard boxes on shelves at the DPAA Laboratory awaiting identification.

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation was informed in December 2023 that another one of the Tarawa "Unknowns" from the Punchbowl Cemetery, whose case we investigated, has been identified by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory.  The identity of the "Unknown" is not being released pending official notification of the family by DPAA.  This can take more months or even years to accomplish.

You can see LVTs (probably LVT4) and higgins boats in action this summer in MI.  I will be there to the best of my ability.

Date: June 21- 23, 2024
Location: Tiscornia Park, St Joseph, Michigan
Landing craft: 3 Higgins Boats, 2 LVT’s, and 2DUKW’s.
Amphibious assaults: D-Day morning and Pacific War in the afternoon.

Hi KIm,
I saw this site and like the aerials taken.
Thanks
Al

Hi Jon

U.S Navy Institute
usni.org
USS Indianapolis Alfred Sedivi Collection

They are not Marine Corps vehicles so I seriously doubt that they were on Tarawa.