Remains of Marine `raiders' to be returned to relatives

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has identified remains of 19 Marines, including an Oklahoman, whose bodies were left behind after a World War II raid on Makin Atoll in the South Pacific.

The announcement Wednesday about men listed for almost six decades as missing in action closes a remarkable chapter in the history of U.S. efforts to account for missing service members.

A military team searched for their bodies in 1948 but found none. In recent years, members of the Marine Raiders Association -- retired veterans of the little-known commando unit of Marine Raiders -- began pressing the Pentagon to renew the search. After three attempts starting in 1998, investigators found the bones last December.

All 19 will be returned to their families from an Army identification laboratory in Hawaii, the Pentagon said. The first burial is expected next month for Cpl. Mason O. Yarbrough in Sikeston, Mo.

The men's remains -- some with dog tags -- were recovered on Butaritari Island, the main land feature on Makin Atoll. It took months using dental records and DNA testing to match the bones with individual Marines of the 2nd Raider Battalion, which attacked the Japanese-held island on Aug. 17, 1942.

The burial site was found with the help of an elderly native islander who said he had helped bury the Marines in 1942.

Among the Marines who survived the battle was Maj. James Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The remains include those of Sgt. Clyde Thomason, of Atlanta, the first enlisted Marine awarded the Medal of Honor -- the highest military award for heroism in combat -- during World War II.

The raid on Makin Atoll was designed to destroy a small Japanese garrison and to divert the enemy's attention from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, to the south, where U.S. troops had landed 10 days earlier.

The Marine Raiders arrived off the shores of Makin Atoll at dawn aboard two specially configured submarines, the Nautilus and the Argonaut, and made their way to the beach on small rubber boats.

Despite the accidental discharge of a rifle, which alerted the Japanese to the surprise attack, the Raiders defeated the fortified enemy positions and began to withdraw from the island in late afternoon.

Only about half of the Marines made it back to the waiting submarines. The rest, including their commander, Col. Evans. F.

Carlson, were stranded on shore, but did manage the next day to arrange a rendezvous with the subs. Before leaving, Carlson paid some natives to bury the Marines killed in the fighting.

The official Marine count was 18 Americans dead and 12 missing, but the true number remains in doubt.

Five Raiders who left one of the submarines to help the last of the stranded men get through the surf went missing. It is believed they survived and were captured, only to be beheaded later by Japanese forces on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. The identities of those five have not been established.

In addition to Yarbrough and Thomason, the remains are those of: Capt. Gerald P. Holtom, of Palo Alto, Calif.; Field Musician 1st Class Vernon L. Castle, of Stillwater, Okla.; Cpl. I.B. Earles, of Tulare, Calif; Cpl. Daniel A. Gaston, of Galveston, Texas.

Castle was Field Musician 1st Class.

Cpl. Harris J. Johnson, of Little Rock, Iowa; Cpl. Kenneth K.

Kunkle, of Mountain Home, Ark.; Cpl. Edward Maciejewski, of Chicago; Cpl. Robert B. Pearson, of Lafayette, Calif.

Pfc. William A. Gallagher, of Wyandotte, Mich.; Pfc. Ashley W.

Hicks, of Waterford, Calif.; Pfc. Kenneth M. Montgomery, of Eden, Wis.; Pfc. Norman W. Mortensen, of Camp Douglas, Wis.; Pfc. John E.

Vandenberg, of Kenosha, Wis.

Pvt. Carlyle O. Larson, of Glenwood, Minn.; Pvt. Robert B.

Maulding, of Vista, Calif.; Pvt. Franklin M. Nodland, of Marshalltown, Iowa; and Pvt. Charles A. Selby, of Ontonagon, Mich.

------ On the Net: Makin Atoll site: http://members.nbci.com/janeresture/makin/makin.htm Marine Raider Association site: http://www.usmarineraiders.org/index2.htm