For 80 years, the family of a Kansas City 18-year-old killed during WWII was left to wonder what happened to his remains ...

Rear Adm. Harry Hill, who command the task force attacking Tarawa, called Betio "a little Gibraltar" and said "only the Marines could have made such a landing." Four Marines were awarded the Medal ...

Robert F. Van Heck, 25, of Chicago, was part of a force that tried to secure the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands, according to the Defense POW/MIA ...

Robert F. Van Heck, 25, of Chicago, was part of a force that tried to secure the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands, according to the Defense POW/MIA ...

Early this year a king tide lifted a shipwreck off the reef at Betio, Tarawa’s westernmost islet, and flung it ashore, piercing a seawall. There it has stayed. The ship has an ironic name ...

In November 1943, Marine Corps Sgt. Robert F. Van Heck, 25, of Chicago, was part of a force that tried to secure the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands, ...