WARRIOR COMES HOME FOR A FINAL FAREWELL

SIKESTON, Mo. -- On Aug. 17, 1942, "Carlson's Raiders," United States Marines from the 2nd Raider Battalion under the command of Col. Evans. F. Carlson, arrived just before dawn off the shores of Butaritari Island, the main land feature on Makin Atoll in the South Pacific.

They had been brought by two special submarines, the Nautilus and the Argonaut, and were making their way ashore on small rubber boats for a surprise attack on the Japanese garrison.

It was estimated there were 45 enemy soldiers there. Following the destruction of the garrison, they planned to withdraw that evening and land the next day on Little Makin Island for another attack.

Among the 221 Marines was Cpl. Mason O. Yarbrough. In his hometown of Sikeston, it was still Aug. 16 due to the time-zone differences. Had he been home that moment, he would have been celebrating his 21st birthday with his family.

An accidentally discharged rifle spoiled any chance for surprise. Opposing several hundred troops, the Marines successfully repelled two banzai charges and in doing so had unknowingly nearly wiped out the entire enemy force.

The Marines weathered several air strikes before deciding to withdraw as planned for the attack on the next island.

Unfortunately, heavy surf and a malfunctioning motor combined during the withdrawal to prevent Carlson and the remaining 120 Marines from reaching the subs.

The next day brought more ineffective air strikes against the Raiders. Before completing the hasty evacuation, Carlson paid natives to bury the American casualties.

With the last of the Marines returning to the subs that evening, the official accounting of losses was tallied at 18 dead and 12 missing in action.

A search was conducted by a military team following the war in 1948. The buried dead and missing men were not found.

Diminishing hope

For a long time Cpl. Yarbrough's family -- his parents, three sisters and a brother -- kept hoping he would return.

Shirley Anderson said that over time, the family's hope gradually diminished, "but I don't think they ever gave up."

Upon the passing of his parents, Yarbrough's name was added to the stone marking their final resting place. His siblings promised their mother, "if Mason was ever found, they would bring him home," said Anderson.

They were not the only ones resolved to bring their fallen home. Survivors of Makin Island together with the Marine Raiders Association were pressing the Pentagon to renew the search.

In August 1998, it began anew.

The first expedition attempted to locate the remains on Butaritari Island with a Cesium Magnetometer -- which can spot subsurface irregularities -- but was unsuccessful.

On the second expedition, investigators began interviewing the island's natives and found someone who could help .

Tokerai Bureimo had been waiting a very long time to pass on what he knew. When he was 16, he had been among those paid by the American colonel to bury the Marines killed in the fighting.

That was in 1942; he was now an old man.

Nevertheless, when those searching for the remains on Butaritari Island found Bureimo, he was ready. Bureimo led them to within 20 feet of the burial site, which had long since been covered by a crushed-coral road.

On Dec. 17, 1999, Bureimo watched as they placed the recovered remains aboard the plane which would take them home and sang the only English words he knew, the Marine Hymn, with tears streaming down his face.

Anderson said her family first received word last spring when Harold Yarbrough, a very distant relative who knew of their family and of the missing Marine, passed on a letter mistakenly sent to him from the government.

A soldier found

The letter was seeking Cpl. Mason Yarbrough's family as the remains of soldiers had been found at the location where he was lost. Upon contacting the government with the number provided in the letter, they were advised of the need for blood samples from his siblings.

Staff Sergeant Keith Milks of the Headquarters Marine Corps described the recovery and identification of the Marines as "the largest and most significant recovery project by the Central Identification Laboratory."

After several months of matching the remains with enlistment dental records and DNA testing, 19 individual Marines of the 2nd Raider Battalion were identified.

On Dec. 15, 2000, at Memorial Park in Sikeston, Cpl. Mason O. Yarbrough became the first of the recovered Makin raiders to be buried in his home country's soil. His sisters and brother and their children attended the long-awaited farewell.

"You would think he just died yesterday," said Anderson. "As painful as it is, it's a wonderful thing."