Memorial Special: Marshall Islands Campaign Vets Honored

This weekend, surviving American vets of the South Pacific theatre are telling of the intense battles such as those fought at Kwajalein and Enewetak, where many were injured, and some comrades gave their lives. Strong-hearted Marshallese endured the trials of the Japanese occupation,war period, and assisted in the liberation of the Marshall islands. In honor of those who served in the Marshall Islands:

The Battle of Enewetak and Kwajalein, January 31 - February 3, 1944
WW II History Comes Alive with Island Stories
Lead-Up To The Battle Of Saipan: Marshall Islands and Truk Lagoon
The Marshall Islands, WWII History - USA
Ace of Spades Squadron, Majuro, 1944 - 1945
Photo: Two Marshallese WWII Scouts Honored
Bikini Atoll: The Japanese on Bikini Current News Includes Veteran Memories:

World War II Veterans Remember Conflict
George Dolezal was a teenager in Kansas when World War II was raging. He knew what he had to do. ``I just felt I ought to go and serve,'' Dolezal recalls. He was only 17, so his parents had to sign for him so he could enlist in the Navy and become a Seabee. Dolezal got in near the end of the war and served with Construction Battalion 91 in the Marshall Islands for about a year. --Associated Press

An old soldier from Stoughton and his stories fade away
Dudley Kopp is one of Craemer-Meihsner's patients. He's 83 and a conversation with him is punctuated by fits of coughing brought on by emphysema and lung cancer. But he perseveres and shares his story, one of going ashore with troops in the Marshall Islands and of living for two weeks in a muddy foxhole. Still, he keeps talking about a day a long time ago on a beach in the South Pacific, a beach strewn with dead. "I walked along that beach," Kopp said, "And I saw all these dead Marines. And I see this one Marine stretched out there. He was a child. He wasn't old enough to die. --Wisconsin State Journal

Utahn's military service filled with pain, heroism
Bullock spent the next three months in the hospital and then went to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, to rejoin his unit. Then it was off to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, where he received a Bronze Star for saving a gunner and was shot in the left leg, thus earning a second Purple Heart. --Deseret News

A Soldier's Story
The young man is now aboard a troop ship heading to his first combat experience. It's the Japanese-held Marshall Islands of Roi and Namur.It's D-Day, H-hour and on a Higgins boat, the kid hits the shore with his platoon. These Marines were part of the first division to go directly into combat from the United States. It would constitute the first American strike against the enemy to secure a base for operations. It was mainly to capture the airfield. The division took the two small islands in three days, but still more than 200 Marines were killed and some 500 wounded. Overnight, there were no more half-assed Marines - they had seen combat and now they had become veterans. --New York Daily News

South Sound vet among those in D.C. for honor
Some Washington state veterans made the long trek to the other Washington to christen a memorial that honors their service and the sacrifices they made 60 years ago Among them is Al Gomez, a Tumwater-area man who said he was one of the first Americans to land on Japanese soil when Allied forces invaded the Marshall Islands in 1943. --The Olympian

Kenny Niles - Veteran reflects on Kwajalein service (PDF file of 4/27/04 issue)
The squadron was stationed at Midway for about four months before transferring to the Marshall Islands.They left Midway, on the USS Makassar Strait, a converted flattop aircraft carrier, bound for Majuro. At Majuro, they were again reassigned to the Marine Air Group 31 Squadron, headquartered at Roi-Namur. Their main mission was to drop bombs on several of the Marshall and Marianas Islands and provide logistics support.“It was the ground-pounders [Marine ground units], who took the beatings,” Niles said. “They are the ones who did the hard work. They did the heroic work. All we did was back them up and give them support.”“It’s really real now”After two months on Roi, the squadron and planes were loaded on the USAT Hawaiian Shipper bound for Kwajalein.Niles remembers the trip from Roi to Kwajalein taking three days.For eight months the only thing they had eaten was K-Rations and C-Rations.“We threw our C-Rations over the side of the barge and chummed for fish,” Niles said. “This was the first fresh meat we had in over eight months.-The Kwajalein Hourglass