lt. Sandy Bonnyman MOH is going home

[Bilge_Rat]

Clay Bonnyman Evans was 5,000 miles from home, deep in a pit on the Pacific island of Betio, when he heard the words his family had awaited for so long.

“It’s gold,” announced Kristen Baker. With a brush, the archaeologist gently swept the sand off an unmistakable shape: a human skeleton — with a mouth full of gilded fillings.

“It’s gold.”

Two words to end a 71-year wait. Two words to solve a mystery that had vexed Evans’s family for four generations. Two words to give a long-lost war hero the happy ending he deserved.

First Lt. Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Jr. was finally coming home.

For the better part of a century, the Medal of Honor recipient was literally lost to the chaos and carnage of World War II. His grave said “Buried at sea,” but his family knew better. Sandy Bonnyman was entombed — somewhere.

RIP Sir.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...=hp_mm&hpid=z3

As many as 500 Marines are still missing on Tarawa.

After their victory, the Marines set about burying the dead. They wrapped the bodies in ponchos and folded them into shallow graves. Then they moved on, and military construction crews came in to raze the island flat. They expanded the airfield and built a network of roads and offices. By the time an excavation team arrived in 1946 to exhume and identify the dead — part of a global campaign to recognize the fallen — no one could remember where they were. Investigators spent three months searching, but they found only half the Marines. Today, 471 of the Tarawa Marines are buried by name in American cemeteries. Another 104 have been laid to rest in “unknown” graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

And the rest — perhaps as many as 520 Marines — are still on, or near, Tarawa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/ma...rawa.html?_r=0

[Aktungbby]

And the rest — perhaps as many as 520 Marines — are still on, or near, Tarawa.

Amazing what a little stubborn cooperation between a dedicated man, Noah, and equally dedicated if misguided JPAC can do when egos are secondary. It also pays to have good dental work. Thanks terribly for posting this.

[vienna]

A very touching story and a very good ending. It is always good when proper respect is able to be afforded to those who fought and died for our freedoms. I think it would also be a further touch, when the remains are reburied, to enclose with the body, a copy of those letters so as to bring full circle the spirit of the man with those who would not give up hope...


<O>

[Jimbuna]

RIP Sir

~SALUTE~

[Harvs]

Great story, i hope that one day they will all make it home