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Does anyone know a Tarawa veteran?


patrick_usmc
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Hello everybody!

If this isn't appropriate for the forum, please feel free to remove it. Anyhow, I thought I'd give it a shot. 

 

I'm writing an article for the upcoming 80th Anniversary of Tarawa, and it's supposed to be focused on surviving veterans from Tarawa. I know there aren't many left, but I'm sure we have a few. I'm exhausting all possible avenues to locate some of these veterans, so I thought I'd see if anyone on the forum knows of any veterans, or knows someone who might be able to point me in the right direction.

 

If anyone knows of a Tarawa veteran that might be willing to speak with me, please do let me know! I'm a pretty experienced oral history interviewer, and I absolutely love spending time with these veterans. I have my letters of recommendation, and specific details about the publication and article available for anyone who'd like it. I'm happy to travel for this assignment, so locality is no issue. 

 

Thank you very much for your help! 

 

All the best,

Patrick

 

P.S. - I'd be happy for connections with other WWII veterans as well! I've got a focus on the Tarawa veterans because of my article, but I do interviews regularly!  

 

 

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You need to get in touch with the forum's resident expert, Kurt Barrickman. He has probably known more Tarawa marines than anyone here.

 

Allan

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Kurt Barickman

At the risk of sounding arrogant, Allan is probably correct. Contact me via messaging if you want and I might be able to afford you and interview a Tarawa veteran of which are rare in 2023.

 

Kurt

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Everytime I see that word Tarawa I have a nostalgic rememberance of my neighbor in the 60's. Road worn older guy who was nice to us in a sort of tough way. Every stupid question I'd ask he'd respond in a gruff voice "Listen here kid..." His kid told us his dad was a 'Tarawa Marine.'  You could not forget that name!

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I met a Tarawa vet years ago. The one thing he told me that really impressed me was that when he was wading ashore, it was like walking on gravel there was so much expended ordnance on the sea floor.

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On 2/23/2023 at 8:44 PM, Kurt Barickman said:

At the risk of sounding arrogant, Allan is probably correct. Contact me via messaging if you want and I might be able to afford you and interview a Tarawa veteran of which are rare in 2023.

 

Kurt

As Walter Brennan's character in "The Guns of Will Sonnett" said, "No brag. Just Fact!" No arrogance here. I doubt anyone in the collecting community has greater experience with the 2nd Mar div vets than you Kurt!

 

Allan

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Kurt Barickman

Thanks Allan, it was a labor of love, what a bunch of interesting characters...virtually all gone  now to time.

 

 

Kurt

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
patrick_usmc

Just wanted to bump this to the top again in case anybody else knows a Tarawa vet. Kurt was very helpful, so many thanks to him and to those who suggested I reach out to him. 

 

All the best,

Patrick

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  • 4 weeks later...
illinigander

My next door neighbor had an older brother who landed on Tarawa.  He was from Columbus, OH, and one afternoon his younger brother brought him over to my Military display room.  His MOS was Sheet-Metal worker & was assigned to Joe (?) Foss' squadron and did aircraft repair.  He said everyone was a "mud-Marine" and his was just the luck of the draw'  He was slightly wounded in the hind end and sent back into the action.  The whole point of this story is that he said that after the action was over, he and several buddies found orange paint and several old sheets and made Japanese meat ball flags, which they took back to the ship and sold them to the sailors.  He brought back a nice Japanese army helmet, which is now in my care.  It was a military family, his sister, my neighbor was a AAC  nurse, her husband was a cook on an LST.  The younger brother whom I knew better did two tours in VN with the CIA.  Sadly they are all gone.  God Bless them.

illinigander

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