Page 6 - Memorial Day 2021 - Combined Special Edition of Luke AFB Thunderbolt and Davis-Monthan AFB Desert Lightning News

6 May 28, 2021 Aerotech News
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An overdue homecoming:

77 years later, Marine finds his way home

by immediately turned to my wife and said, were transferred from Hawaii to India-
ASHLey CALinGO ‘I’m going home for his service, whenever napolis, Indiana. Marines then oversaw the
it’s happening.’” transfer of his body from the Indianapolis
Headquarters Marine Corps
Wiesehan was discovered by History airport to Richmond.
QUAnTiCO, Va. — After 77 years, Pfc. Flight alongside more than dozens of State and local police, along with numer-
Louis Wiesehan, Jr., finally returned home. “nonrecoverable” Marines at a lost burial ous veterans’ organizations, accompanied
Wiesehan, 20, was a member of Company site — dubbed Cemetery 27—on Tarawa Wiesehan’s hearse on the 86-mile journey
F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd in 2014. In 2015, History Flight turned the to Richmond. American flags and supporters
Marine Division. He was among the cadre of excavated remains over to DPAA, who then lined the streets of the small towns Wiesehan
Marines charged with securing the small, but used extensive anthropological analysis to passed on his final journey. Defense PoW/MIA Accounting Agency Photo
heavily fortified, island of Betio in the Tarawa identify the service members. Wiesehan Wiesehan was honored the next day, on U.S. Marine Corps Private 1st Class
atoll on November 20, 1943. was finally identified and accounted for in National POW/MIA Recognition Day, at a Louis Wiesehan, Jr., of Richmond, In-
The Battle of Tarawa was part of Opera- September 2019. small ceremony at the Wayne County Vet- diana, was killed during the Battle of
tion Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilbert Like Wiesehan, Mullins grew up in Rich- erans Memorial Park. On Sept. 19, 2020, Tarawa in November 1943. After years
Islands in the Pacific Theater of World War mond. Mullins describes it as a small, blue- Wiesehan was finally laid to rest at the of initially being declared “nonrecover-
II. Now known as one of the bloodiest battles collar town that is incredibly patriotic, with Goshen cemetery, with full Marine Corps able” by Defense Department officials,
in the Pacific during WWII, the Battle of Midwestern values and a large contingent funeral honors. he returned home and received a he-
Tarawa left roughly 1,000 Marines and of veterans. As the presenting officer, Mullins received ro’s welcome with full military honors
Sailors dead and more than 2,000 wounded. Mullins reached out to one of his former the flag after it was appropriately folded by in September 2020.
“There’s a quote from the commander in
charge of defending Tarawa that goes, ‘A mil-
lion men cannot take Tarawa in 100 years,’”
said Col. Kirk Mullins, program manager for
Advanced Amphibious Assault at Program
Executive Officer Land Systems. “The Ma-
rines did it in 76 hours. It’s hard for us, today,
to put what transpired over those three days
into context — the difficulty of trying to win
the battle in an area where hundreds of your
fellow Marines lay dead. ”
Wiesehan was killed on the second day of
the three-day battle. His remains — among
others — were hastily buried amidst the fog
of war in a division cemetery on Betio Island.
After the war, the Defense Department
tasked the U.S. Army 604th Quartermaster
Graves Registration Company with recov-
ering American bodies and investigating
Missing in Action personnel in the Pacific. In
1946, they centralized all American remains
found on Tarawa at Lone Palm Cemetery for
later repatriation.
Despite this, about half of the known casu-
alties, including Wiesehan, were not found.
In October 1949, a Board of Review
declared Wiesehan as “nonrecoverable.”
Wiesehan’s family became one of many
families who never saw their loved ones
returned home. Courtesy photo
Or, so they thought. U.S. Marine Corps Col. Kirk Mullins, program manager for Advanced Amphibious Assault at Program Executive Officer Land
Body identified in 2019 Systems, served as the presenting officer at the funeral of Private 1st Class Louis Wiesehan, Jr., on Sept. 19, 2020, in their
The Defense Prisoner of War/MIA Ac- hometown of Richmond, Ind. Wiesehan was identified, recovered, repatriated and finally laid to rest 77 years after he was killed.
counting Agency’s mission is to provide the
fullest possible accounting of missing U.S. Amtracker colleagues, retired Sgt. Maj. Marines during the ceremony. Mullins gave “During the Pacific island-hopping cam-
military personnel to their families and the Justin LeHew, who currently serves as chief the folded American flag to Wiesehan’s oldest paigns in World War II, things were moving
nation. History Flight is one of the many operating officer at History Flight. Mullins living relative. so fast that they couldn’t bring everyone
organizations working alongside DPAA to knew that, as COO, LeHew could provide “My role was very small,” recalled Mullins. home — that they had to bury their fellow
research, recover and repatriate America’s additional information on Wiesehan’s home- “But for me personally, it was a significant Marines on the island,” said LeHew. “Part
service members. They routinely send out coming and service. opportunity to honor and participate, and be of what makes Marines different is how we
emails and social media posts providing their “Initially, I was just going to pay my the one presenting the flag to the family. For never surrender. And when we have a mis-
followers with updates on their latest efforts respects and honor Pfc. Wiesehan, just as so long, because Pfc. Wiesehan was deemed sion, we accomplish that mission and bring
and service member recoveries. a fellow Richmond Marine,” said Mullins. ‘unrecoverable,’ getting the opportunity to everyone home as much as possible. Being a
In late 2019, one such update caught the “Justin communicates frequently with the bring someone’s son or brother home seemed Marine is part of who I am, and that doesn’t
eye of Mullins, a fellow Indiana native. Casualty branch of headquarters Marine hopeless. So the significance of finally being stop when we (retire). Bringing these Ma-
“As I was scrolling through (my Facebook Corps. The next thing I know, I’m getting able to do what seemed like the impossible rines home is just part of the next mission.”
newsfeed), I received a notification (from His- contacted by them asking me if I want to be after 77 years is an incredible accomplish- There are still more than 70,000 service
tory Flight) about a Marine they positively the presenting officer.” ment.” members unaccounted for from World War
identified,” said Mullins. “As I started reading Finally laid to rest LeHew said honoring a fallen Marine II. To learn more about Defense POW/MIA
the post, I discovered that the Marine was Wiesehan’s homecoming was a three-day nearly eight decades later is part of the Ma- Accounting Agency, please visit https://www.
from Richmond, Indiana, my hometown. I affair. On Sept. 17, 2020 Wiesehan’s remains rine Corps’ mission and purpose. dpaa.mil/.