USS Tarawa Veterans' Association
Official Website
CV-40 LHA-1
One Great Battle – Two Great
Ships
The U.S.S. Tarawa Veterans’
Association
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n 20 November 1943 the 2nd Division,
United States Marines, stormed ashore on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll of the
Gilbert Islands in the Central Pacific. More than 200 ships stood off-shore,
bombarding the strategic Japanese stronghold, disgorging troops and
supplies. Two-thousand Americans,
sailors and Marines, ashore and afloat, gave their lives in that single three-day
amphibious operation. Their sacrifice gave our forces a foothold in what became
an island-hopping strategy that
eventually led to the Japanese homeland. Five thousand of the enemy gave
their lives in one of the bloodiest battles fought to that time in World War
II’s Pacific campaign.
On 8
December 1945, an Essex-Class Aircraft Carrier was commissioned at the Norfolk
Navy Yard in Virginia. She proudly bore the name of that epic engagement, the
U.S.S. Tarawa (CV-40). Within 15 years, that carrier, born too late to take
part in the war she was designed to fight, was gone, mothballed, and later
consigned to the welders’ torch, to scrap.
On 29 May
1976, another Tarawa was commissioned at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula,
Mississippi. She is the U.S.S. Tarawa (LHA-1), an Amphibious Assault Ship, a
new breed of vessel designed to swiftly carry Marines and their support
equipment to the beach by air and water. That ship remains in commission to
this day, extending America’s influence to the far corners of the globe.
In 1989,
former crewmen of the first Tarawa vowed that the name of their ship and the
Battle for which it was named would not be allowed to vanish into the fog of
history. From a nucleus of a dozen determined Tarawa CV-40 shipmates, the
U.S.S. Tarawa Veterans’ Association has swollen to more than 2,000 found
crewmen from CV-40; men and women from LHA-1 were invited to participate in
2000 and are coming aboard in
increasing numbers.
The
Association meets annually for several days of reminiscing, meeting old
shipmates, renewing friendships on hold for half a century. The centerpiece of
the annual gatherings is a Memorial Service honoring the men who lost their
lives at Tarawa, honoring the men and women of the namesake ships who died in
the performance of their duty, honoring those who have answered the last muster
since last we met.