On Nov. 20, 1943, 18,000 Marines were met with withering fire, poured out by elite troops of the Imperial Navy’s Special Naval Landing Force.
The attack on Betio, the largest and southernmost island in the Tarawa atoll, required a direct assault on the beachheads by U.S. Marines.
On that day, alongside those Marines clutching the beachhead amid a lethal hailstorm of mortars, machine gun and rifle fire, was a duck.
Won in a raffle at a New Zealand pub by Sgt. Francis “Pappy” Fagan, the duck was given the rank of sergeant and named Siwash after Sgt. Jack “Siwash” Cornelius of Skagit County, Washington. According to the Marine Corps Chevron, Cornelius acquired the nickname due to it sounding similar to his home county’s name. (Note, Siwash is a derogatory term for Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, and as such, the name “Siwash” will be replaced simply by “duck” in this story.)
