139 WWII Marines Entombed on Pacific Atoll?

November 30, 2008 Goldsboro (NC) News-Argus.

"Researchers say 139 WWII Marines entombed on Pacific atoll: Ground-penetrating radar used to find mass graves on Tarawa." by Associated Press.

Mark North of Florida has been leading an effort to locate the graves of 139 Marines on Tarawa by using funds made by supplying rides on historic aircraft. Researchers have used ground-penetrating radar, interviewed hundreds and gone through thousands of documents in the search.

James Clayton Johnson, 60, never met his uncle James Bernard Johnson who died on Tarawa at age 17, but he was named after him. He learned of the effort to locate his uncle's grave and those of 541 other missing Marines who died at the battle..

More than 990 Marines and 680 sailors died and 2,300 wounded in the amphibious battle, one of the first in the Pacific. Eight burial sites that may have contained Americans have been determined.

Names and locations are believed to have been lost as US Navy crews rushed to build desperately needed landing strips in the days following the November 20, 1943 in vasion.

Let's Hope the Remains are Found and Properly Identified and Sanctified. --Cooter