A Late Veteran Tribute

William James Bordelon.

I did not know about this distant cousin until today, when an NPR story prodded my curiosity about a surname on my family tree. A few Google searches later, and I find Staff Sergeant William James Bordelon, USMC. The link gives a brief military history (please be sure to read it) of the heroic efforts of this brave soldier, my distant cousin. Our Bordelon ancestors came to Louisiana from France and were part of the early settlement of the territory. My gggg grandmother was a Bordelon. I haven't traced the exact connection between myself and cousin Bill, but the Bordelon name and history is well documented, just a matter of connecting the tree branches.

Bill had helped to support his family during the depression by earning a dollar a day delivering milk from a local dairy farm near San Antonio, Texas. This young man was bright, making Honor Roll his senior year in high school. He was strong, athletic, and a natural leader. His senior year in high school he attained the rank of Major in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, the top ranking cadet of the 300 participating in the program. Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, William James Bordelon, enlisted in the Marine Corps.

The following is an excerpt from the history pages:

After the Battle of Midway and especially after the fall of Guadalcanal, the Japanese Imperial Navy began to fortify the Gilberts. Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki, commander of Betio, received four of the heavy guns from Singapore that the British hoped would turn back an invasion. Shibasaki announced that a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years." It would take 35,000 men four days to conquer Tarawa; at the end of the battle, neither side would look at the war the same way.

Tarawa was far more heavily fortified than any island the Allies had encountered before; to attack it the growing strength of the United States Navy would mobilize a fleet of dozens of ships. On November 22, 1943, after a three-hour bombardment, the 2nd Marine Division landed on Betio. Shibasaki had 2500 Imperial Naval Marines, with 2,300 Korean and Japanese laborers. They had transformed Betio into a fortress of unparalleled intricacy, with coconut log bunkers cemented with crushed coral and intersecting zones of fire. The fire thrown against the US Marines was intense, and within the first hour the first wave had suffered almost total casualties. The amtracs, mobile personnel carriers that could operate on land and water, were in high demand by Americans, but were being destroyed one by one.

The coral reef prevented the Higgins boats from landing directly on the shore; the Americans had to wade in. They drowned in hidden holes in the reef, and were caught by machine gun fire from a bombed out ship on the shore. Once on land, they had only the sand between the ocean and the seawall, only a few yards wide. By the end of the first night, it was not definite that the Americans were here to stay.

Like the Japanese Navy in the Solomons, the Americans were losing their junior officers and noncommissioned officers rapidly. Advance was only due to a sergeant or a lieutenant leading their squad or platoon over the wall and moving inland. The Japanese would not give up. They would fire until they had one bullet and kill themselves with their big toe in the trigger of their rifle.

By the third day, the American Marines were moving across the island in a battle that had turned into a series of small unit actions. Dead and wounded mounted on both sides, and even the division reserve could not turn the tide. At dusk the Americans had taken enough ground to ensure that Tarawa would be taken; the only question was the amount of blood. Shibasaki and his entire command staff died sometime on the third day, committing suicide rather than face capture. Few Japanese surrendered; only 17 prisoners of war were alive at the end of the battle.

Courtesy of the WWII Multimedia Database

William Bordelon was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, as well as the Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal "For valorous and gallant conduct above and beyond the call of duty as a member of an Assault Engineer Platoon of the 1st Battalion, 18th Marines, tactically attached to the 2d Marines, 2d Marine Division, in action against the Japanese-held Atoll of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands on 20 November 1943."

Over fifteen hundred (1500) American soldiers died on Tarawa.

Cousin Bill, I never knew you, but I am very honored to call you family and I thank you most sincerely for your sacrifice to our country.

**You might enjoy this epic poem, TARAWA ATOLL by Thomas G. Pettit.