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#Post#: 525--------------------------------------------------
Department of Defense Confirms Identification of Tarawa MIA Whos
e Case was Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Fami
By: ChiefRickStone Date: November 22, 2024, 12:12 pm
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*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
November 20, 2024
Department of Defense Confirms Identification of Tarawa MIA
Whose Case was Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Family
Charitable Foundation
Eighty-one years ago today, Marine Sergeant Robert Fred Van Heck
from Chicago, Illinois was a crew member of an amphibious
tractor landing on Tarawa’s Red Beach 1. His craft was
designated “Number 13”, which he and another crew member,
Corporal Claire Goldtrap, dubbed “Wrabbit Twacks” after a
popular 1940’s Bugs Bunny cartoon. They also painted “1/2”
after Number 13 to ward off any bad luck. During the first wave
on 20 November 1943, “Wrabbit Twacks” was bracketed by Japanese
mortar fire and both were killed instantly. CPL Goldtrap and
SGT Van Heck were reportedly buried in Cemetery 11 on Tarawa but
after the war neither body could be identified.
While at the Department of Defense in 2011/2012, retired Police
Chief Rick Stone prepared investigative reports on all of
Tarawa’s MIAs using the Random Incident Statistical Correlation
(RISC) System, which he had created as a member of the Dallas
Police Department. Chief Stone discovered that both CPL
Goldtrap and SGT Van Heck were “Most Likely Matches” to
“Unknowns” buried in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2017, six years after
Chief Stone recommended the Tarawa Unknowns be exhumed and
identified, the Department of Defense (DoD) began disinterring
the "Unknowns” from Tarawa. The Chief Rick Stone and Family
Charitable Foundation continued to investigate both CPL
Goldtrap’s and SGT Van Heck cases. The analysis indicated CPL
Goldtrap was “Unknown X-277” and SGT Van Heck was “Unknown
X-265.”
On 1 June 2018, the DoD officially announced CPL Goldtrap’s
identification as Unknown X-277. Confirmation of SGT Van Heck’s
identification as Unknown X-265 from DoD was received today on
the 81st anniversary of his loss. SGT Van Heck finally arrived
home to Chicago for his hometown burial last month, almost
thirteen years after Chief Stone’s original investigative report
on his case.
Chief Stone stated: “The crew of Wrabbit Twacks is finally
re-united again on American soil after over eight decades of
separation from their family and friends. A special thanks to
retired Marine SGT Ed Gazel, who recently passed away at age 100
but not before he gave us the clue to finding “Goldy” Goldtrap.
Credit also the persistence of our Foundation team who used the
same clue to also find SGT Van Heck.”
The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a
non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose,
Texas. For more information on this case or the Foundation’s
activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com
Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the
staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the
Office of the Secretary of Defense who helped acquire research
documents for the investigation. And, of course, all who
provided financial support for our Foundation’s activities.
The Foundation investigations referenced in this release were
not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency.
If you are interested in assisting the Foundation’s mission to
help bring home our missing American heroes, please go to our
web site’s “Make A Difference” link at:
www.chiefrickstone.com/?page_id=123644
NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information, please contact the public
affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable
Foundation via email to Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com
#Post#: 526--------------------------------------------------
Re: Department of Defense Confirms Identification of Tarawa MIA
Whose Case was Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and
By: gunnygp Date: November 30, 2024, 2:45 pm
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Interesting. From all that I have read about the battle, both
men were killed when a 75mm shell burst in the LVT cabin while
they were at the seawall on Red Beach One. Photos of the tractor
show the large hole in the left side of the cabin. The Japanese
also did not have "mortars" on Betio, although they did have
large numbers of 50mm grenade throwers that many misconstrued as
mortars.
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