Roy Exum: A Hero Is Coming Home

  • Monday, August 3, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

In late September, a very special funeral will be held in Bearden, Tenn., when 1st Lt. Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Jr., will finally come home to lie in peace with his family. Sandy’s been dead for 72 years now, ever since he was killed in combat on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands on Nov. 22, 1943. He and a number of other Marine heroes were buried back then in a shallow trench on the island that was called Cemetery 27 and that’s where he’s been up until this summer.

But because of a stubborn grandson and a wonderful group called History Flight, a non-profit out of Florida, a monumental search ended in May of this year.

It was known Sandy had undergone extensive dental work and, when an archaeologist studied the jaw of one skeleton in an unmarked grave on Betio Island, she said when she saw the jaw. “It’s gold.”

Bonnyman’s remains are still in Hawaii for DNA analysis, but the steps to return them to the United States are now completed. And the tireless work that 53-year old Clay Bonneyman Evans of Colorado did to find his grandfather is not just amazing but very fulfilling for every family who lost a soldier at sea.

The Battle of Tarawa was one of the worst hand-to-hand battles in the Pacific Theater. The small island of Betio, the largest in the Atoll group, is where some of the most intense combat in the war took place. Betio, in what looks to be a skinny triangle of land, is just two miles long and about 800 yards at the widest point. Thus confined, there are not many places to hid.

The whole battle lasted just 72 hours, but it was a scene from hell itself. The Japanese, fighting down to nearly the last man, lost 4,690 soldiers in less than three days, while the Marines had 1,696 casualties, our Bonnyman among them. But you need to know the Japanese had been preparing for the battle for over a year before our amphibious Marines were attacked for the first time.

The enemy had concrete bunkers almost everywhere, but there was one huge bomb-proof shelter where 1,500 Japanese were taking cover and it was the crucial piece in the United States battle plan.

Sandy Bonneyman had grown up in Knoxville, where his dad owned a coal company He enrolled in Princeton, where he played football but did not graduate.

He served briefly in the Army Air Corps before acquiring a copper mine in Arizona, getting married and having three children. When war was declared he promptly enlisted as a private with the Marines and, due to his unmistakable valor, he received a battlefield promotion before he and his fellow Marines went ashore at Betio Island. Sandy was killed on the last day of the Battle of Tarawa but not before he etched himself into Marine Corps lore as a Metal of Honor winner.

Here’s the Marine Corps’ account:

* * *

Landing on Tarawa on D-Day, 20 November 1943, 1st Lt Bonnyman, was Executive Officer of the 2d Battalion, 8th Marines' Shore Party. When the assault troops were pinned down by heavy enemy artillery fire at the seaward end of the long Betio Pier, 1stLt Bonnyman on his own initiative, organized and led the men over the open pier to the beach.

There he voluntarily obtained flame throwers and demolitions, organized his pioneer shore party into assault demolitionists, and directed the destruction of several hostile installations before the close of D-Day.

On the second day of the epic struggle for that strategically important piece of coral, 1stLt  Bonnyman, determined to effect an opening in the enemy's strongly defended defense line, led his demolitions teams in an assault on the entrance of a huge bombproof shelter which contained approximately 150 Japanese soldiers.

This strong point was inflicting heavy casualties upon the Marines and was holding up their advance. The enemy position was about forty yards forward of the Marine lines. 1stLt Bonnyman advanced his team to the mouth of the position killing many of the defenders before they were forced to withdraw to replenish their supply of ammunition and grenades.

n the third and final day of the Tarawa battle, he renewed his attack upon the enemy position, leading his men in the placing of flame throwers and demolitions in both mouths of the cave.

Realizing that the seizure of this formidable bastion was imperative to make the Marine attack successful, 1stLt Bonnyman pressed his attack and gained the top of the structure flushing more than one hundred of its occupants into the open where they were shot down.

Assailed by additional Japanese, he stood at the forward edge of the position and killed three of the attackers before he fell mortally wounded. His men beat off the counterattack and broke the back of the resistance. The island was declared secured on the day of 1stLt Bonnyman's death.

In addition to the Medal of Honor, 1stLt Bonnyman was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three bronze stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.

* * *

Clay Bonneyman Evans says he will bury the Medal of Honor winner’s remains under a headstone that reads, “Buried at Sea.” His frustrated great-grandfather bought the stone, although no one believed he had died at sea after reading the Medal of Honor declaration.

“I think it is a delicious historical irony,” Clay said of the ‘Buried at Sea’ inscription. “Really, it is because of this marker that everything happened. It never offended me his bones were somewhere on the island, but the little island took incredible care of him for the past seven decades. His bones are almost perfect.”

And soon the remains of a Tennessean who earned the Medal of Honor in one of the most brutal battles of World War II will lie in the family plot at Highland Memorial Park. I hope he’ll get a hero’s welcome.

royexum@aol.com

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