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Tarawa Groupings


Kurt Barickman
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Wow, that Dean Ladd uniform is awesome. He wrote a fantastic memoir of his time with the Marines. One of my all time favorite WWII accounts!

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Kurt Barickman

Wow, that Dean Ladd uniform is awesome. He wrote a fantastic memoir of his time with the Marines. One of my all time favorite WWII accounts!

Thanks, Dean is an active member of the 2nd Marine Division Association and we talked a few times a few years ago and low and behold a rather large box from him arrived at my doorstep with his greens from WWII! Needless to say, it made my day/week/month. He stated that Minnesotans were near and dear to him as two fellow Gopher Staters saved his life during the Tarawa operation.

 

Kurt

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Thanks, Dean is an active member of the 2nd Marine Division Association and we talked a few times a few years ago and low and behold a rather large box from him arrived at my doorstep with his greens from WWII! Needless to say, it made my day/week/month. He stated that Minnesotans were near and dear to him as two fellow Gopher Staters saved his life during the Tarawa operation.

 

Kurt

Thst is an incredibly cool story! It really goes to show that many veterans really appreciate when civilians take interest in and show gratitude for their service. My WWII marine grandfather has made that so clear to me.

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Kurt Barickman

Thanks for the positive comments. I been a member of the 2nd Marine Division Association MN Chapter for about 15 years; wish I would have known about it earlier. I have done displays for the chapter in the Twin Cities and they have been here to see my museum. Although I was not a Marine, I was in the USN for about 9 1/2 years and they still take me in. Our current president is 92 and a corpsman who was with D-1-2 for Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian. So we "squids" get along with all the gyrenes, their wives and MANY widows in the chapter.

 

Kurt

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ViewfinderGyrene

Soon I will scan my contribution, a letter by a veteran of C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion. As I understand, he was in an M3 Stuart. They weren't as involved as the Shermans, but IMHO had a tougher go in their involvement. Their 37mm main gun wasn't strong enough to knock the Japanese out of their log, steel, and concrete emplacements, so they had to bring their tank to bear right up to the vents of the pillboxes and bunkers to fire. The Stuarts supported a drive by 1/6 which placed them "in the triangle" of Betio Airfield before the 3 consecutive last ditch night attacks by the Japanese on 1/6's lines. Whether the Stuarts remained on the line with 1/6 I have yet to determine. They then escorted the 2 Shermans which remained in action on the final day of the battle, in the drive up the tail of the island. By then most of the Japanese had been neutralized.

 

The letter is amusingly casual, written almost exactly month after Tarawa [12/18/43] on Japanese stationery captured off of a Japanese soldier that "didn't need it anymore" as many of the Marines would say. He mentions the stationery in the content of the letter.

 

Remarkable contributions by all!

 

VFG

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ViewfinderGyrene

Harold Kapaun

 

Regimental Weapons Company,

 

Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa

 

I wonder if he's a distant relative of Emil Kapaun, the highest decorated Catholic Chaplain, who served in Korea?

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Kurt Barickman

72 years ago today the struggle for Tarawa was on and the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines landed today D+1.

 

Kurt Barickman

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  • 2 years later...
Kurt Barickman

I just added this grouping to the Tarawa KIA grouping to my collection and thanks much to HOA and his wife for graciously driving this group to my house yesterday from Kansas.

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Just killer Kurt. Your Tarawa groupings thread is hands down my favorite on the forum. Its always nice to come back and see your amazing collection.

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Jumpin Jack

Kurt, I'm viewing your Tarawa collection for the first time. Absolutely amazing! You are to be congratulated for your quest and determination in preserving this significant period of history. Thank you for sharing. Jack

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