AMARILLO, Texas (AP) – For years, for decades, the young Marine from Hereford whom his buddies called “Rabbit” was called something else, something that put a silent knot in the stomachs of his family and those he fought with on foreign soil.
The Department of Defense tersely described Elmer Mathies Jr. as “unrecoverable.” Forever lost in a lost world since the morning on the beach of Tarawa on Nov. 20, 1943. Difficult enough to lose a son or brother, even more so never to get him back.
“‘Rabbit’ deserved more, they all do, than to be lost or forgotten or whatever words you want to use,” retired Col. Elwin Hart, 91, of Federal Way, Washington, told the Amarillo Globe-News (http://bit.ly/1t2oYSs).
Seventy-five years ago, Mathies had to get his parents, Hereford accountant Elmer Mathies Sr. and mother Eunice, to sign for him. He was only 17 when he joined the Marines in 1941 just prior to the U.S. entering World War II. At 5-foot-3, his baby face made him look like he was 12.
Mathies, who went by his Marine call name of “Rabbit,” fought with Hart at Guadalcanal. They trained for 10 months in New Zealand for the assault of the Marshall Islands. First stop, the tiny atoll of Tarawa.
They were part of the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division. Together, with the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, they fought to capture the crucial little island against the well-entrenched Japanese.
Landing boats dropped them hundreds of yards from the shore. Salt water splashed to their chins as they waded to dry land while bullets and mortars were all around. They found cover in a mortar pit on the beach. Mathies was a radio wire man, and Hart was a radio operator.
The landing was hell on earth. A handful of Marines were in the fortified 10 feet by 10 feet mortar pit. Mathies was setting up communications for radio contact to the ships.
He jumped into the pit and then pushed himself up on the edge to peel off his equipment. His sergeant yelled at the young private to get down.
“Simultaneously with that yell, a single shot from a Japanese sniper hit him right in the heart,” Hart said, “He fell right into the pit. I just remember the sergeant saying, ‘No, no, no.’ He was one of his favorites.”
Rabbit’s body would remain with them for nearly three days just a few feet from that protected pit. He was one of 1,200 Marines who would die in the first three days of that chaotic bloody fight.
Indicative of the times, it was not until 34 days later that a Western Union telegram arrived at the Hereford home of Elvin Sr. and Eunice Mathies where daughter Mary Jo and son Thomas also lived.
“THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS DEEPLY REGRETS TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON ELMER L. MATHIES. JR…ON ACCOUNT OF EXISTING CONDITIONS, THE BODY IF RECOVERED CAN NOT BE RETURNED AT PRESENT…”
It was Christmas Eve.
Mary Jo, 12, was at a Campfire Girls party, laughing and opening gifts when she looked up and saw her father standing there.
Sources: http://www.washingtontimes.com