Word Celebrity Blog

Alexander Bonnyman, Jr.





Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman, Jr. (May 2, 1910 – November 22, 1943) was a United States Marine Corps officer who was killed in action at Betio, Tarawa during World War II. A combat engineer, he received the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal  with three Bronze Stars and the World War II Victory Medal posthumously for extreme bravery during the strategically important assault on a Japanese bombproof shelter during the Battle of Tarawa.


Early Life




























"Sandy" Bonnyman was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 2 May 1910, but when only two years old, his family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. Alexander Bonnyman, Sr., his father, was president of the Blue Diamond Coal Company of Knoxville.

As a youth, young Bonnyman attended Mrs. J. A. Thackston's School in Knoxville and was graduated from Newman School in Lakewood, New Jersey, before entering Princeton University. A member of the class of 1932, he was first-stringer on Princeton's football team until he left school in 1930.


Military Service

The Tennessean enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a Flying Cadet on 28 June 1932 and was sent to the Preflight School at Randolph Field, Texas. He was honorably discharged 19 September 1932.  It was reported that he was washed out "for buzzing too many control towers".

Following his discharge he went to work with his father, whose firm was one of the largest coal mining companies in the United States. On 15 February 1933, Alex was married to Miss Josephine Bell at San Antonio, Texas. In 1938, Alexander Bonnyman Jr., acquired his own copper mine in the mountains about 60 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico.





















At the outbreak of the WWII, Alex Bonnyman was exempt from any military obligation due to his age (33) and his role in running a company producing strategically vital material for the war effort. In spite of this and determined to fight, Alex Bonnyman enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as a private at Phoenix, Arizona. He received his basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California.


























In October 1942, Alex Bonnyman sailed for the South Pacific aboard the SS Matsonia. Alex distinguished himself at the Battle of Guadalcanal as part of a Marine pioneer unit (akin to a lightly equipped version of an Army combat engineer group). In February 1943, Alex received a battlefield commission to the rank of second lieutenant in recognition of what his superiors described as exceptional leadership skills.


























Top Row: Capt. Don E. Farkas,  Dr. Agar,  Lt. Gilbert 
Bottom Row: Lt. Govedare holding Reising SMG and Lt. Bonnyman.


Landing on November 20, First Lieutenant Bonnyman was Executive Officer of the 2d Battalion, 8th Marines' Shore Party. Alex Bonnyman's civilian background, temperament and skills would come to play an important role at Tarawa in November 1943, where he was assigned to a shore party handling beachhead logistics.

The heavily defended Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands was initially attacked by three reinforced assault battalions of the U.S. Marine Corps Second Division. By nightfall 1,500 marines had been killed or wounded, and the outcome of this critical battle was in serious doubt. A banzai attack at the end of the first day would have destroyed the remaining marine landing forces.


























However during the second day, reinforcements of men and supplies slowly began to change the eventual outcome of the battle, as the marines held and enlarged their tenuous perimeter on Betio, whose total area approximated that of the Pentagon and its parking facilities.  ALEX Bonnyman WAS determined to effect an opening in the enemy's strongly defended defense line. hE led his demolitions teams in an assault on the entrance to a huge bombproof shelter which contained approximately 150 Japanese soldiers. The enemy position was about forty yards forward of the Marine lines. Bonnyman advanced his team OF 21 MEN to the mouth of the position and killed many of the defenders. His team was forced to withdraw to replenish its supply of ammunition and grenades. Alex Bonnyman spent several hours studying the approaches to the giant, camouflaged bunkers outlining his plan of attack to a group of hunkered-down marines. Alex Bonnyman had recognized the vulnerability of the several air vents on top of the seemingly impregnable bombproof bunkers.






















The flame thrower smoke rises above the top of an enemy bombproof shelter on Betio as Marines, led by 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman's, advance. Notice the faint arrow that the cameraman used to identify Lt, Bonnyman,


At dawn of the third and final day, the key to victory lay in the elimination of a massive and lethal Japanese concrete bombproof shelter that had halted the marine advance.  On his own initiative, Lieutenant Alex Bonnyman organized and led five men over the open pier to the beach. There he voluntarily obtained flame throwers and demolitions and directed the blowing up of several hostile installations. The Knoxville miner renewed his attack upon the enemy position, leading his men in the placing of flame throwers and demolitions in both mouths of the cave. They flushED more than one hundred of its occupants into the open where they were shot down. Lieutenant Bonnyman pressed his attack and gained the top of the structure. Assailed by additional Japanese, the marine lieutenant stood at the forward edge of the position and killed three of the attackers before he fell mortally wounded. His men beat off the counterattack and broke the back of the resistance. Betio Island was declared secured on the day of Lieutenant Bonnyman's death.

Bonnyman's group was accompanied by a combat marine photographer, who recorded the hazardous climb of the sandy-sloped bunker, the systematic destruction of its defenses by flame-gunners, grenade, and rifle fire, and dropping short-fused TNT charges down the air vents, which flushed out 150 defenders, who were killed.

It was reported that when Lieutenant Bonnyman's body was recovered by his men, he lay forward facing the enemy. He was identified only by his dog-tags.




























Medal of Honor Citation

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

FIRST LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER BONNYMAN, JR.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Executive Officer of the Second Battalion Shore Party, Eighth Marines, Second Marine Division, during the assault against enemy Japanese-held Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, from 20 to November 22, 1943. Acting on his own initiative when assault troops were pinned down at the far end of Betio Pier by the overwhelming fire of Japanese shore batteries, First Lieutenant Bonnyman repeatedly defied the blasting fury of the enemy bombardment to organize and lead the besieged men over the long, open pier to the beach and then, voluntarily obtaining flame throwers and demolitions, organized his pioneer shore party into assault demolitions and directed the blowing of several hostile installations before the close of D-Day. Determined to effect an opening in the enemy's strongly organized defense line the following day, he voluntarily crawled approximately forty yards forward of our lines and placed demolitions in the entrance of a large Japanese emplacement as the initial move in his planned attack against the heavily garrisoned, bombproof installation which was stubbornly resisting despite the destruction early in the action of a large number of Japanese who had been inflicting heavy casualties on our forces and holding up our advance. Withdrawing only to replenish his ammunition, he led his men in a renewed assault, fearlessly exposing himself to the merciless slash of hostile fire as he stormed the formidable bastion, directed the placement of demolition charges in both entrances and sized the top of the bombproof position, flushing more than one hundred of the enemy who were instantly cut down and effecting the annihilation of approximately one hundred and fifty troops inside the emplacement. Assailed by additional Japanese after he had gained his objective, he made a heroic stand on the edge of the structure, defending his strategic position with indomitable determination in the face of the desperate charge and killing three of the enemy before he fell, mortally wounded.

By his dauntless fighting spirit, unrelenting aggressiveness and forceful leadership throughout three days of unremitting, violent battle, First Lieutenant Bonnyman had inspired his men to heroic effort, enabling them to beat off the counterattack and break the back of hostile resistance in the sector for an immediate gain of four hundred yards with no further casualties to our forces in this zone.

He gallantly gave his life for his country.

/S/HARRY S. TRUMAN


In addition to the Medal of Honor, Lieutenant Bonnyman was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three Bronze Stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Two of the four Marines awarded the Medal of Honor for Tarawa were combat engineers: Lt. Bonnyman and SSgt Bordelon.

Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman was survived by his wife and three daughters, Frances, Josephine and Alexandra.






















His Medal was posthumously presented to his teen-aged daughter by Secretary of the Navy James F. Forrestal, at the Navy Department in Washington, DC, on January 22, 1947. Buried at sea, his name is inscribe on the Wall of the Missing in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.



























Cenotaphs for Alec Bonnyman exist in the Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Bonnyman family plot in Highland Memorial Gardens in his native Knoxville, Tennessee.

Alexander Bonnyman was listed as buried at sea by the US Navy, but the Missing Personnel Office maintains that his body was "non-recovered".
























USNS 1st LT Alex Bonnyman (T-AK-3003), 1985-____, is named in honor of First Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman, Jr.

The Pellissippi Parkway bridge over the Tennessee River on the Knox-Blount county line in Tennessee is designated the Lt. Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Memorial Bridge in his memory.

 "He gallantly gave his life for his country." - Harry S. Truman