[Skip2MySue]

Return to Makin Island

A true story about 19 young marines killed on an island (one of the first raids against the Japanese in WWII). They had to retreat, so asked the islanders to please bury the dead for us. This of course was WWII.57 Years later, they checked and found a man who had been a teenager then and remembered where they were buried. They sent a C-130 and an honor guard over there and found all 19 had been buried with their helmets on, their rifles in their hands, in perfect condition. The islanders had really done a wonderful job.

As they were loading the bodies, a voice from out of nowhere started singing "The Marine Hymn" - gave everyone goose bumps. Turns out, the voice was from a man who spoke no English, but remembered a song the Marines taught him when they landed. Very touching. All 19 of their photos are at the end.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6f_FvZpm3g

[PJOHNS2654]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KathieI]

Thank you!
Great post!

[Buffalo Jim]

Thanks for sharing such an amazing story .
Last Saturday I attended a Department of Defense Update concerning on going efforts to locate and repatriate the MIAs from primarily the Korean War . It was held at the Hyatt at the Orlando Airport . Families of about 150 MIA`s mostly from Korea were present .
I am the oldest nephew of my late Father`s oldest brother who died in N Korea about 5K short of reaching POW Camp #1 on about May 15th , 1951 .
My several years of research concluded in a small town in West Va. where I met face to face with the old Vet who reported that he witnessed my Uncle`s skull being beaten to mush by the Communist Chinese soldiers who took charge of all POWs during the war and marched them North to the Camps along the Yalu River .

My uncle only age 19 and suffering from starvation , dysentary and pneumonia fell out of the march line and could not raise himself up . The man i spoke with reported that he tried to help but was threatened to be shot by the Guards .

The current count of MIA`s from Korea is now about 7,143 . The DOD knows where the majority of these remains are located which is along the Yalu River just across from China .
This area remains pretty much the same as it was during the War . Today the network of
then POW Camps are being used as prisons for citizens of North Korea and all of their extended family members who ran afoul of the NK Gvt .

Our DOD estimates that these camps now hold over 100,000 such political prisoners .

However our surviving POWs mapped out where they had buried their fellow POWs who died in captivity way back from 1950 to August of 1953 .

The expert anthropologists shared that they believe that the soil conditions in these areas
are such that the remains would be well preserved and identifiable if they could gain access to search the areas around the Camps and the areas along the " Death March " routes .

However the so called " Peoples Republic of North Korea " has never allowed our repatriation experts into these areas . They still refuse to acknowledge that over 60% of our POWs died under their control . They still insist that the missing POWs each " escaped " and were never sighted again .

Beginning in the summer of 2000 the NK Gvt allowed our experts to conduct some recovery operations in areas of some battle sites within NK . Each year a few would be recovered . However the DOD shared that in most cases these were remains which had actually been removed from another site and " planted " such that we could recover a few of our GI`s each year .

In 2005 the NK Gvt halted summer field recovery operations and forced our DOD repatriation team to immediately leave NK and we have not been allowed back in since .

By the official estimates of our DOD specialists who spoke they indicated that if given access that the remains of at least half of our boys could be located and brought home .

The DNA in these remains is still in tact and the DOD shared that they have now collected DNA from over 90% of the siblings of our missing .

During the past 14 years two organizations of the families of the missing have had face to face meetings with the then Secretary of State and begged the Department of State to insist that our DOD teams be allowed into NK for " Humanitarian Purposes of Recovery .

However without naming specific Secretaries of State who did hold talks with the NK Gvt at high levels the two family organizations which continue to lobby our Gvt to make this issue of the MIA`s / POWs a priority both organizations in their published Newsletters reported that our Department of State failed to make this issue an agenda item .

Back in 2000 when we were negotiating for access to search for our Missing the NK Gvt demanded that we pay them $100,000 for each set of recovered remains .

The DOD being involved with these logistic negotiations properly maintained that the search and recovery is a " Humanitarian Effort " and not a Political Issue and refused to pay ransom for the return of our dead .

Since the time of the American Revolution our military has operated under the promise
" that no man is to be left behind " . And as they were shipped into a battle zone often the young soldiers were told " we may not all come home alive but we will all come home ".

The remaining families of these American Soldiers and Marines are still waiting for that promise to begin to be fulfilled . And to me at least these brave boys spirits are calling out from their graves to be returned to their families .
I have had the opportunity to discuss this issue with no less than 3 Congressmen and 2 Senators face to face without the distraction of a traditional " rope line hand-shake " .

Amazingly not a single one of them professed to be aware of the magnitude of this situation . One former Senator had such a chance as our official top Secretary and reportedly did not even bring the subject up . Now this same person is believed to be interested in occupying the highest office .
For me it is a very sad situation and these boys who gave all and suffered much have been abandoned by our elected National Leaders .

[rubicon]

Thank you for the stories . This thread reaffirms my belief that no one man or woman should be able to hold the Office of President of these United States unless s/he has served honorably in the active military service.

[B767drvr]

Originally Posted by Skip2MySue

Return to Makin Island

A true story about 19 young marines killed on an island (one of the first raids against the Japanese in WWII). They had to retreat, so asked the islanders to please bury the dead for us. This of course was WWII.57 Years later, they checked and found a man who had been a teenager then and remembered where they were buried. They sent a C-130 and an honor guard over there and found all 19 had been buried with their helmets on, their rifles in their hands, in perfect condition. The islanders had really done a wonderful job.

As they were loading the bodies, a voice from out of nowhere started singing "The Marine Hymn" - gave everyone goose bumps. Turns out, the voice was from a man who spoke no English, but remembered a song the Marines taught him when they landed. Very touching. All 19 of their photos are at the end.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6f_FvZpm3g

Know this story well, and thank you for taking the time and effort to honor these brave young Americans that gave their lives for us!

Semper Fi Marines!

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