Tuesday reunion, Friday suggestion

Eighty-three years ago, April 13 August 27, 1942,  a Marine automatic rifleman named Robert Joseph Budd was killed on Guadalcanal, along with his best friend Thomas Phillips, and both were buried there.

The next morning, the friends were buried side by side in a coconut grove. A burial party noted a broken-down fence as a nearby landmark and made sure that both were buried with dog tags. However, neither grave was located by post-war search parties.

Among others, Robert left behind his 10-year younger brother, Ken. Too young to sign up with his older brother, he eventually enlisted during the Korean War but never saw battle. Nor did he ever forget the brother he was so close to growing up. Ken’s daughter, Kathy Kinane, tells:

Kinane tells a story from 1987 when Robert visited Ken in a dream.

“Hi,” he told Ken. “Got to go now. But I’ll get back to you on September 26.”

Ken did not think anything of the dream, nor the oddly specific date.

Later that year, he was leading a fishing tour on the Oswego River when the water level was suddenly lowered by Niagara Mohawk after someone had a medical emergency upstream. When the water was allowed to rise, Ken’s boat was caught in a whirlpool and capsized.

“Budd suffered a fractured vertebrae, cuts, bruises, and trauma, according to legal documents,” the Herald American reported on Jan. 24, 1988.

Three times Ken tried moving while lying on the bottom of the river but could not move.

Suddenly, there was “a commanding voice.”

“Put your arms out,” it said. “Try one more time.”

Ken rose to the surface of the river and grabbed hold of another boat. The date was September 26.

The article says that by 1987 Ken had already visited Guadalcanal twice, trying to find where his brother was buried.

Ken Budd started researching his brother’s unit and movements at Guadalcanal. He got Robert’s records from the National Personnel Record Center and visited the National Marine Corps Museum. He tried tracking down the comrades in his brother’s unit.

Ken made “hundreds and hundreds of phone calls, letters and personal visits with ex-Marines and others who might possibly help him,” a 1989 Post-Standard article said.

Again, in a dream, they say Robert told Ken to call his old squad leader, Charlie Wolff.

With information provided by Wolff, Ken was able to retrace his brother’s final steps at Guadalcanal in 1985. However, he could not find his burial spot.

Ken asked a local priest if he could have a plaque dedicated to his brother at a church which faced towards the direction where Robert had fallen.

A year later, in 1986, he returned with the plaque which read:

“Resting in peace on these sacred grounds are Robert J. Budd and Thomas Phillips, American Marines, who died valiantly for their country. The Budd Family.”

Ken returned to the site in 1989, again in 1993, and for the last time in 2008. No joy.

Ken died on February 22, 2021.

Incredibly, almost beautifully, one month later to the day, a construction crew laying water pipes outside The Ofis restaurant at Guadalcanal requested an explosive ordnance expert to their work site after human remains and American military equipment were found.

Robert and Phillips had been finally found. Ken had hoped that Phillips and Robert would be interred together at Arlington, but his family thought the brothers should be reunited.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, Robert Budd is set to return to New York state.

His remains are due to land at Rochester and will then be given a Marine escort back to Syracuse, returning to his hometown after 83 years away.

There will be a memorial service at Buranich Funeral Home, 5431 West Genesee Street, Camillus, at 11 a.m. on Friday, October 10.

He will be buried with full military honors at Valley Cemetery, 2500 Valley Drive, Nedrow.  Military.com

I’m thinking if some of you locals aren’t busy Friday morning, I have a suggestion?

Category: Marines, We Remember, WWII