Posted on: Tuesday, August 14, 2001

13 Marine Raiders to be buried together in Arlington cemetery

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

For 13 Marine Raiders who fought and died on Makin Atoll in 1942, repatriation would not occur for nearly six decades, but the story of their heroism would rally a war-time nation with movies like "Gung Ho," and "Marine Raiders."

On Friday, they will be buried as they fought — together — at Arlington National Cemetery 59 years after the early strike on the Japanese-held island gave Americans hope following a string of Pacific defeats.

The Marines, who drilled at Barbers Point and landed on Makin Aug. 17, 1942, were returned to Hawai'i after the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory recovered their remains in 1999.

A departure ceremony is planned tomorrow at Hickam Air Force Base where Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, will speak.

Army anthropologists from the identification lab found the remains of 19 Marines in a 6-by-18-foot mass grave after being told by an islander who helped bury the bodies to look for the intersection of two roads on Makin, now called Butaritari.

A search in 1948 for the gravesite was unsuccessful, but the Hickam-based identification lab in 1999 found the intersection and the long-lost Marines buried in a coconut grove.

Six of the remains were returned to families for burial. The 13 remaining Marines will be buried in a common area at Arlington.

"It's really quite fitting they will be interred in the same location inasmuch as they shared a common grave for 50 years," said Hugh Thomason, whose half brother, Sgt. Clyde Thomason, received a posthumous Medal of Honor for his courage under fire.

Thomason, 80, who lives in Bowling Green, Ky., never thought anyone would find his half brother's remains. The family long ago placed a marker for Clyde Thomason on a family plot.

"He was simply one of this group, and the fact that gallantry was recognized (with the Medal of Honor) is commendable and gratifying," Hugh Thomason said, "but the way I look at it, he's staying with his comrades, and that's the important thing."

The Raiders were volunteers. Among them was President Franklin Roosevelt's son, James.

Col. Evans F. Carlson's 2nd Raider Battalion of 222 soldiers left O'ahu for Makin in the submarines Nautilus and Argonaut Aug. 8, 1942.

Little went right for the Raiders, who faced a tenacious defense. But 90 dead Japanese were counted after the battle, which was hailed as a success after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.