PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man’s quest to find hundreds of U.S. Marines buried anonymously after one of World War II’s bloodiest battles could lead to the largest identification of American war dead in history.

Researchers used ground-penetrating radar, tediously reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed hundreds of others to find 139 graves. There, they say, lie the remains of men who died 65 years ago out in the Pacific Ocean on Tarawa Atoll.

Mark Noah of Marathon, Fla., raised money for the expedition through his nonprofit, History Flight, by selling vintage military aircraft rides at air shows. He hopes the government will investigate further after research is given to the U.S. Defense Department in January - and he hopes the remains are identified and eventually returned to the men’s families.

"There will have to be convincing evidence before we mount an excavation of any spot that could yield remains," said Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon’s Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Office.

U.S. government archaeologists would likely excavate a small test site first, he said.

James Clayton Johnson never met his uncle, James Bernard Johnson, who died on Tarawa at age 17. But Johnson, who was named for his father’s brother, never forgot that young Marine.

Now 60 and living near Noah in the Florida Keys, Johnson learned of the effort to identify the burial sites of his uncle and 541 other missing U.S. Marines on Tarawa while researching his uncle’s military records online.

More than 990 U.S. marines and 680 sailors died and almost 2,300 were wounded in the three-day battle, one of the first major amphibious assaults in the Pacific.

Johnson, himself a veteran who led special forces troops into Cambodia as a 21-year-old Army platoon leader during the Vietnam War, isn’t sure having his uncle’s body returned to the U.S. would provide any sort of closure.

"There aren’t any open wounds for me that need fixing," he said.

But Johnson wants the world to know about the volunteers committed to preserving the names and stories of thousands of American soldiers.

"My problem is that people don’t care," he said. "I get pumped up, and I want people to think and look at things like this."

Noah, a 43-year-old commercial pilot and longtime World War II history buff, raised the $90,000 for the Tarawa work by selling rides at air shows and partnering with The American Legion, VFW and other groups.

Noah and Massachusetts historian Ted Darcy of WFI Research Group reviewed eight burial sites they believe contain U.S. remains. They say the claim is backed by burial rosters, casualty cards and combat reports; interviews with construction contractors who found human remains at the sites and locals who have found American artifacts; and other information.

But they’ll leave the digging to the U.S. government, so the archaeological integrity of the sites isn’t spoiled.

The names of many fallen soldiers were lost as U.S. Navy crews rushed to build desperately needed landing strips on the tiny atoll after the Nov. 20, 1943, invasion. Many of the graves were relocated.

The military didn’t focus on identifying the soldiers who died at Tarawa until 1945, when an Army officer was tasked with unraveling the hasty reburials.

"You could sense his frustrations in his reports," said Noah, who reviewed all the burial records.

The brief telegram James Hildebrand’s grandmother received on Dec. 26, 1943, said her 20-year-old son died on Tarawa Atoll and included this line: "On account of existing conditions the body if recovered cannot be returned at present. If further details are received you will be informed."

James Hildebrand, now 65 and living in Gilroy, Calif., said his grandmother wrote letters to the Navy for years trying to recover his uncle’s body.

He’d like to know whether the remains could be buried in a mass grave in a military cemetery in Hawaii with a group of unidentified U.S. soldiers taken from Tarawa many years ago. And he hopes the Defense Department will try to find his uncle’s body on Tarawa.

"If he’s still on the island … there’s space in our family plot in Tucson where he could be buried. It would mean a lot to our family," he said.

For 10 years, Merill Redman of Illinois has ultimately been encouraged by reports of efforts to find his brother’s body on Tarawa. He’s been disappointed each time.

Redman, now 79, was 14 when his older brother joined the Marine Corps and left their small town of Watseka. He’s even traveled to Tarawa himself, trying to find his brother and bring him home.

"Each little thread," he said, "it drives me on in this project."

 By Audrey McAvoy

 
Photos by Audrey McAvoy/AP
Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, shakes hands with Roy Robinson, an 83-year-old veteran of the Battle of Tarawa. On Thursday, the 65th anniversary of the brutal battle, Keating said many lessons still could be learned from World War II. "Pay attention to the survivors while we can," Keating said.

TARAWA, Kiribati — Master Sgt. James M. Fawcett got on his knees and gently mixed his father’s ashes with sand on the Pacific beach where the elder Fawcett fought his way ashore 65 years ago.

Maj. James L. Fawcett died in September at the age of 89. He wanted his ashes taken to the spot where half of the men in his 50-man platoon were killed during the first two hours of the Battle of Tarawa, one of World War II’s most brutal battles.

"What a great way to end a great life," the younger Fawcett said Thursday after he fulfilled his father’s wish. He was "a guy that was just an incredible hero and an incredible father," he said.

Fawcett later joined a ceremony observing the 65th anniversary of the Nov. 20, 1943, start of the three-day battle. The United States aimed to take Tarawa from Japan, which had controlled the island since Tokyo ousted the British three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The fight for the tiny atoll halfway between Hawaii and Australia was the U.S. military’s first major amphibious assault in World War II.

Victory gave the U.S. control of a critical airfield it used to launch planes to bomb new Japanese targets and spy on Japanese positions. It also taught the Navy and Marine Corps crucial lessons in amphibious warfare that would help the U.S. take island after island as it pushed west across the Pacific to defeat Japan and end the war.

But the gains came at great cost.

More than 990 U.S. Marines and some 680 sailors died, while almost 2,300 were wounded. Only 17 of the 3,500 Japanese troops — and 129 of the 1,200 Korean laborers forcibly brought to Tarawa by Japan — survived.

"The battle that unfolded here was one of staggering sacrifice, almost inconceivable challenge," Adm. Timothy J. Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said at the ceremony marking the anniversary. "Their courage and commitment and sense of honor inspired a nation."

Four Medals of Honor — the nation’s highest award for combat valor — were earned at Tarawa, one of them posthumously. Thirty-four Navy Crosses, the Navy’s second-highest award for valor, were issued along with some 250 Silver Stars.

The U.S. had expected to significantly weaken the Japanese position before the Marines landed by assaulting the island with long-range bombers and sorties launched from aircraft carriers. Battleships and cruisers lobbed shells.

The Americans planned to have 3,000 Marines on the beach in 30 minutes and 6,000 more in the hours that followed. Instead, the Marines took hours getting ashore, and lost hundreds of men doing so.

The U.S. made two especially costly mistakes.

One was dramatically underestimating how many Japanese would survive their aerial bombardments. The other was misreading the ocean tides, causing U.S. transport boats to get stuck on the reef. Many Marines were mowed down by Japanese machine-gun fire when they were forced to abandon the boats and wade ashore.

After assessing the results of Tarawa, U.S. commanders decided they would need more amphibious troops to invade Kwajalein and nearby islands. They also determined they would need to drop precision bombs over long periods to take out the concrete bunkers that had protected Japanese troops on Tarawa from aerial attack.

Keating, who commands 300,000 U.S. troops in the Asia-Pacific region, urged those working for him to learn from World War II veterans while they are still living.

"Pay attention to the survivors while we can," he said.

And though the region is largely at peace, Keating cautioned against getting complacent.

"Don’t take what we have today for granted," he said. "We must not be overconfident."

On Red Beach, Fawcett stood up and saluted his father’s ashes after mixing them with the sand. A fellow Marine who had been observing silently walked up and joined in the salute for several minutes.

"It was simple, and he would have really liked that," said Fawcett, 56. "I’m sure he’s very gratified right now."

Master Sgt. James M. Fawcett, left, and Capt. Kyle Corcoran salute Fawcett’s father’s ashes on Red Beach in Tarawa, Kiribati. Fawcett spread the ashes on the beach where his father fought his way ashore 65 years ago on the first day of the Battle of Tarawa.