Veteran of Tarawa Leon Cooper heard that Red Beach in Tarawa, where so many of his fellow marines made the ultimate sacrifice and where he was a landing craft officer - was strewn with garbage. On Feb 2008 he returned to Tarawa and has been trying to get the beach made as an appropriate Battlefield
monument to Marine heroes who died there.
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/return_to_tarawa/
http://90daywonder.net/returntotarawa/
Very moving film. It was sad to see all that garbage on those beaches and grafitti on the gun emplacements.
Dogdaddy 1
I am familiar with this story, and am in the process of watching each of the links you posted. Thanks!
I'm afraid many do not even know the name TARAWA.Those who know the history of WWII, are well aware of Normandy, but do not know a thing about the D-Day landings at Tarawa, Okinawa, etc.
A few other links of interest...
http://ehistory.osu.edu/wwii/articles/tarawa/index.cfm
http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/tarawa.htm
http://www.ihffilm.com/80.html
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
