Tarawa Marine to be laid to rest
SGT. Robert F. Van Heck was 25 when he was killed in 1943 on the island of Betio, part of the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Island chain.
He was a member of the 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which saw heavy combat over several days of fighting against the Japanese military on an atoll of the Gilbert Islands located in the South-Central Pacific.
Van Heck’s remains were accounted for on April 13, 2023, the agency said, using anthropological and DNA analysis. He will be buried Jan. 7 in Hillside, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago, the agency said.
After days of fighting, roughly 1,000 Marines and sailors were killed and thousands more were wounded, leaving the Japanese forces “virtually annihilated,” the DPAA said.
The agency said that roughly 350 service members’ remains are still unaccounted for from the battle.
Apparently Van Heck had some dismal forebodings prior to the battle.
CBS News reported that Van Heck sent a letter home to his family, which was later published in a newspaper shared with the outlet by U.S. officials. Van Heck said: “Don’t count on me coming home this spring as we had planned.”
According to the clipping, his family received a telegram announcing Van Heck’s death only half an hour after they read that letter.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency(DPAA) identifies remains using mitochondrial DNA testing.
Nearly half of the known casualties were never located, the agency said, and those who could not be identified were buried anonymously at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In 2017 — nearly 75 years after the conflict — DPAA disinterred “Tarawa Unknown X-265,” the code Van Heck’s remains were labeled as before his identification.
“A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for,” the DPAA said.
According to an online obituary, Van Heck served as an amphibian tractor crewman during the assault on Betio. It said that his vehicle was an LVT-1, an amphibious landing vehicle, named “Wabbit Twacks” and painted with the number “13 ½” to “ward off bad luck.”
Many of the approximately 350 unaccounted for troops from Tarawa were Marines killed on the first day, according to the DPAA, likely from intense artillery and machine-gun fire while the amphibious assault was ongoing. In 2016, the DPAA expanded efforts to identify remains from the battle, disinterring nearly 100 caskets. Military.com
Welcome home.
Since the renewal of recovery efforts in the 1970s, the DPAA said, nearly 1,000 Americans killed in World War II have been identified and returned home. The agency said that there are still 71,989 troops who served in that conflict unaccounted for.
Category: Marines, We Remember, WWI
Another brass-balled, bad-ass laid to rest. Semper Fi Devil dog and rest in peace.
RIP Sgt!
Welcome Home, SGT Van Heck and Rest Easy, Good Sir. Our apologies that it took so long. A Salute to you for your Service and your Sacrifice.
Account for them all.
In a quiet little cemetery here in the Housatonic River Valley there’s a stone for a husband and wife which, at first glance seems rather simple and blends in with the rest. Walking closer, I noticed between and slightly beneath both of their names is the name of their son, a Marine killed on Tarawa in 1943. It appears that he’s buried there with his Brothers-in-Arms but etched onto their stone as a loving memorial to the son they lost.
It hit me hard, right in the stomach, knowing the war — and that battle in particular — hit so close to our quiet little piece of the country. I’m glad it did, for these are the kinds of events and people we must never forget, even if we’ve never met them or shared their pain and hardship.
🫡
Deckie,
Yes, even today, all these years later these stories tug at your heart. Because we have so much respect for these men and women, not even knowing them we can still think of them and hurt for their family members and their loss. Then, almost always I get a searing, burning sense of anger aimed at the punks of today and yesteryear who have zero respect for these great men and woman who gave their lives so that all of us, including the left-wing, coward, commie turd types, have the freedom to spew their vulgar beliefs.
Last year when that Marine veteran of WW2 said this was not the America he fought for and grew up in 80 years ago — the comments on many of those articles saying “ahhh yes, he misses the racist, segregationist ways of the old days and killing innocent people. He’s out of touch and irrelevant.”
These are the same people employers and the rest of society must take seriously — according to them. Society is rotten and the leftist ideology is to blame for it (by design, as said on another post…)
Exactly. They twisted his words as is typical of the cowardly, left-wing ilk. Of course, we know what the old hero meant. He was simply saying that he can’t believe that this country has so many people living in it who hate it, while also living under the blanket of freedom that men and woman like him fought for. In his day, there were commie cowards, but most Americans loved their country. Today, it seems like there are many among us who want her destroyed. These pfucksticks spew their unpatriotic and cowardly venom while hero’s fight for them. I always say, ‘having the right in the country to act like a stupid, ignorant asshole and say what you want and not get killed is a beautiful thing.” Isn’t that enough for these commie, fascist cowards?
A dear widow lady in our church had a son MOA in ‘Nam. For decades she was left with the ache of not knowing, wondering, uncertain, and with a desperate but fading hope that maybe someday he’d be found.
They did, before she died, identify his remains and she finally had some peace. It helped that a gentleman from our congregation fell in love with her and married her, caring for her in her last years.
But she never quite lost the pain in her eyes.
We had one like that too, before I was born. Her son was the *only* one in the parish to die in WW2 — he was a bomber pilot who went missing in Europe. No trace of him or his crew. Gone. Poof.
So while the dozens of other boys who went to war returned home to start their own families — she was forever stuck in that single day and moment that she was notified he went missing… right to her death. They’ve still never found out what happened and likely never will, but from what I was told she was never the same again.
Can’t imagine a worse nightmare.
I was putting flags out on Memorial Day with the local Legion and happen to notice a plaque laid flat in the ground, partially covered with grass. As we often had to search for Veterans graves and markers, as the list are rarely accurate as to the location of veterans graves. I took some time and brush back the dirt and carefully cleaned the lettering. And here before me it says this veteran was killed during Vietnam and at the same base I served. Never knew anyone from my area also served at that base. His parents have long passed and there does not appear that anyone has bothered to set a flag on his grave for many years as it was obscured with grass growing over it. It had no military marker only the plaque created by the family to remember him. I have marked his grave on our list for future care and setting of the flag on Memorial Day. I always stop and check to see that his plaque is kept clear and readable. I want to make sure that all the veterans are remembered for their sacrifices for our freedom. It is important to pay our respects to those that have paid the price, no matter where they lay in eternal rest. As we strive to leave no man behind.
God bless you Jimbo, we sure need more like you. That sort of reverence a lot of times goes unnoticed, but you saved one more hard-charger from being forgotten. We can’t ever let that happen. It’s no different than letting our flag touch the ground. It can’t be allowed to happen.
Keeping the faith.
I saw a you tube video made by a man in my battalion years ago paying respect to those killed during 1968. I was surprised to see one from Vermont. I did not know this man or even there was anyone from Vt. in our battalion. I went to visit and pay my respects on Memorial Day and could not find his grave. I did some research and was told where he was buried and he is with his parents with no military marker or even any reference to his service. I try to visit every Memorial Day or as close to that as possible. Forever 18.
Well done!
Welcome Home SGT. Van Heck, may you and your family find peace.
Rest In Peace, Sergeant.
(slow salute….)
RIP, Sgt.
And may your family be comforted.