I have been in contact with both Mark and Ted for some 6 months. They contacted me when they returned from Tarawa a couple weeks ago with the good news.
We already were fairly certain that my uncle should be in one of the graves in this plot. This was know for several years,, as they had interviews and personal logs from the medical ship that was posted off Tarawa during and immediately after the engagement. Each KIA was recorded by a doctor from the med ship.
Mark & Ted reported that they think there are 130+ "hits" on their ground penetration radar.
Although the plot was known from hand drawn maps,, it was "lost" because of inaccuracy.
This plot was re-discovered during an interview of a person that was the local public works employee for 30+ yrs,, and he remembered a basketball court as a child,, said court was in a 1944 picture of the island with the grave plot in the back ground,, and this same bb court was referenced in a hand drawn map of the island by graves registration..
And the story goes on,,,
Quote:
The ground-penetrating- radar survey of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll was completed last week. It will take a month or so to get all the data in a report. I am happy to report that the graves of 130+ Marines and sailors left behind were found. We will be issuing a press release on 20 November, the 65th anniversary of the battle, describing what has taken place so far, the names and home towns of the bodies we found and our plans to get remains back to their families as quickly as possible. At the moment we are in talks with several Universities and museums to handle the excavations and identifications. More on this later.
All four of the missing graves/cemeteries were located. Additionally several unnumbered graves were located using the original maps and burial reports found at Quantico earlier this year. There are other graves remaining to be surveyed but time and funding ran low. We'll get to them on the return trip.
Documentation that was obtained while on the island leads me to believe that in several cases bodies that were returned were misidentified. After 12 years of research on this subject nothing surprises me any more.
Hope to keep you all informed as the project proceeds.
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The numbers and data have changed some in the final report, but it supports the findings. We now await action by the Pentagon.
The real story will be if and when the Pentagon authorizes the Army to verify the search and start the re-internment..
I do not expect much to happen for maybe a year or more..
I had a chance to review the documentation that was collected last May.. all the hand drawn maps,, personal interviews,, Navy CB's & Army Engineer surveys of the island.....
I'm not an expert,, but the Army had an AR for graves registration (AR-290??), with details on how a temporary grave plot WILL be established, to include the direction the head stones WILL face, the distance between plots, the size & shape of the marker,, distance between rows,,, etc, etc...
Will somebody forgot the book on Tarawa..
I'll try and e polite,, It was a royal Turkey-F&*(&(&^(&^ Talk about a mess,,
These guy deserve awards for figuring this mess out.. and oh-by-the-way,, most of it is out of their own pockets,, NO money from Uncle...
Anyway, I'm talking to much,, I think these guys did good...