A new historical novel about the 1942 Makin Island raid and the recovery of 19 fallen Marines draws a direct line to Coronado's Marine Raider heritage.
Newport Beach author Tom Holtom released "Semper Fidelis: The Homecoming of Carlson's Raiders" on Sunday, Sept. 6, through the Coronado Eagle & Journal. The book chronicles one of World War II's most daring raids and the nearly six-decade effort to bring home the Marines left behind, including Holtom's uncle, Captain Gerald P. Holtom.
The Makin Island raid has a lasting footprint on Coronado. The Sgt. Clyde Thomason Amphibious Skills Training Facility, dedicated on Coronado on Dec. 17, 2004, honors a Medal of Honor recipient killed alongside Captain Holtom during the raid.
On Aug. 17, 1942, Marine Raiders from the 2nd Raider Battalion stormed Makin Island in the South Pacific under Colonel Evans Carlson's command. A 1946 U.S. Naval Institute account lists Captain Gerald Holtom among 18 Marines killed during two days of fighting. He was the unit's intelligence officer and, according to the book's press release, the only officer killed in action during the raid, shot by a Japanese sniper while reading enemy documents.
Gerald Holtom's body and those of 18 comrades were buried in a mass grave by local Gilbertese islanders after the surviving Raiders returned to their submarines. That made 19 Marines listed as missing in action. A 1948 military review stamped Gerald Holtom's case "Approved Non-Recoverable," according to Holtom's account.
The remains stayed on Makin Island for more than half a century. In January 1999, a team from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) visited the island to search for the grave. A May 1999 excavation found nothing, according to Pacific Wrecks, a military history research site.
Then a breakthrough. Local village chief Bureimoa Tokarei, who had witnessed the 1942 burial as a young man, helped the team locate the site. The CILHI team returned in November and December 1999 and recovered the remains of all 19 Marines.
The novel describes the excavation uncovering 19 sets of remains, 55 live hand grenades and a set of dog tags bearing the name "Holtom, Gerald P."
Each Marine was identified during 2000. Six were returned to their families for private burials. The remaining 13 were buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 17, 2001, 59 years to the day after the raid. Marine Corps Commandant James L. Jones spoke at the funeral service at Fort Myer Chapel.
Captain Gerald P. Holtom has an individual grave at Arlington in section 60, site 8035, in addition to being listed on the group burial marker.
"I wanted readers to understand that a Marine's story doesn't end on the battlefield," Holtom said in a press release announcing the book. "It continues in the lives of the people who loved them and waited for them to come home."
