MISSING IN ACTION----COMIN' HOME!

Tarawa, pronounced two ways; TA-RA-WA, OR TER-A-WA.  Either way the story is the same.
The battle of Tarawa was essentially the battle of Betio, a two mile ribbon of sand and coral in the Gilbert Islands, some 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii.
The planning was flawed.  The intelligence was bad.  The charts were wrong.  The bombardment was ineffective and the planes were late.  But the Marines assaulted anyway.
It was November 1943 and taking control of the south Pacific was paramount.  It cost the lives of 1,100 Americans in three days of intense fighting.
The Japanese were dug in and zeroed in on the beaches. Some of the Higgins boats had to discharge there Marines 600 yards from the beach because they were blocked by the coral reef when the tide changed.  Those Marines were forced to wade to shore in the face of withering machine gun and small arms fire.  2,500 other Americans were wounded in the fight while 17 of the 4,500 Japanese defenders survived.
The killed were hastily buried where they fell and remained there, carried as MIA until 1949 when the military review board declared many of them unrecoverable.  Now, 70 years later---thanks to the efforts of History Flight, a non profit group many of these Marines are coming home....Medicineman!

THE ART OF GROWING OLD AND ACCEPTING IT!

After one passes the Biblical "Three Score and Ten" the days seem to move along a little faster.  Now there is a way to stop that abruptly, but I will not go into that now.
After a recent trip back in time, that is, to my home town.  I left town, went to college and entered the Korean War and visited the old home place on a regular basis while family was still alive.  So far so good.
Now on this trip I find that every person I grew up with is gone.  Moved or died.  No body knows me any more.  The names I mentioned while resting in the Legion Club drew a blank stare-----except for one old geezer whose older brother was in school at the same time as I.  The stock answer was, "I don't remember."  Or maybe, "Before my time".  "What'd you say your name was?"  Old folks have a hard time remembering names!
It did serve as a good lesson for me though.  Stay on the move.  Be happy, wherever you are.  Make new friends, cause your old ones are gone.  And keep moving.  Makes you harder to hit!....Medicineman!