Jump to content

Tarawa KIA USMC Purple Heart Group-very extensive


Kurt Barickman
 Share

Recommended Posts

manayunkman

Extensive in history!

 

Poignant group.

 

Where have I seen the Foxton flag?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who or what is HOA?

 

You can find my post on "New Members". The story of Kenneth has obsessed me for the past 18 months. I helped my wife's cousin clean out his basement (he was 90 years old and passed away about 6 months ago). All of the items in the group that Kurt has were in the basement, except the snake box and the home made archery bow. Those were in his garage. I first found the snake box and I asked Russell (the cousin) what it was and he told me that it had belonged to his wife's aunt's son, who was killed during the invasion of Tarawa. I later found the bow and Russell told me it belonged to Kenneth as well. I still did not really know who Kenneth was at that time.

 

After we got the garage cleared out we tackled the basement. The basement was about 2000 sf and it was packed wall-to-wall with stuff. In one box I found the Purple Heart and I asked Russel about it and he said it was Kenneth's. I laid it aside and kept on digging through the hundreds of boxes and Kenneth's name kept popping up. I found envelopes full of pictures and documents Kenneth's mother had kept and I found a box of his high school papers and articles about his snake collecting. Then I found the box with the Foxton banner in it and Kenneth's pile kept getting bigger and my interest kept expanding as well. I found his dairy he kept during boot camp in San Diego.

 

After a lot of research, I started piecing the story of Kenneth together and what you see on Kurt's post is the result. I know of only one of Kenneth's surviving relatives (Russell's daughter). She didn't really know Kenneth as he died before she was born. I had lunch with her this past Thursday and she is thrilled to death that Kurt now has the group. We know that the story has found a good home. Thank you, Kurt and thanks to Russell for living long enough to tell me what he knew about Kenneth. BTW, I put flowers on Russell's grave at National Cemetery # 1 in Fort Scott, Kansas today.

 

Pete Allen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kurt Barickman

Will try to get some shots of the snake cage and hand made bow up soon; the news paper article describing the military grave registration return of the snake cage is quite unique in my opinion.

Kurt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Very complete grouping. I'm not really active collecting these days but had a similar Tarawa posthumous USMC PH grouping from out-of-the-woodwork fall into my lap this past week. A 3/2 Marine who was KIA on Nov 21st and buried at sea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...