Marines

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Sgt. Chaz Arurang, a supply administration and operations specialist with 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Forces Reserve, stands on the barrel of a canon at the Peleliu World War II Memorial Museum in Peleliu. Peleliu, Arurang’s native home island in the western pacific, is where one of the most ferocious and hardest fought battles by U.S. Marines took place during World War II. The 73-day long conflict resulted in the highest number of casualties of any amphibious assault in military history.

Photo by Courtesy Photo

HISTORY IN THE MAKING: Peleliu Marine Connects Past to Present

21 Sep 2015 | Sgt. Adwin Esters U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve

NEW ORLEANS - On the small Palau island chain in the western pacific, U.S. Marines operated in one of the hardest fought battles during World War II, the Battle of Peleliu. It took place on a small island in that chain bearing the conflict’s name between Sept. 15 and Nov. 27, 1944. It resulted in the highest number of casualties of any amphibious assault in military history.

The inhabitants of that island have always carried with them the history of the battle which tore their home apart. The one thing they remember most is how the Marines eradicated the Japanese invaders.

            “The Marines have always had an impact on my life since I was a little kid,” said Sgt. Chaz Arurang, a supply administration and operations specialist with 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Forces Reserve, and native of the island of Peleliu. “Every year on the anniversary of the battle, the Marines would come visit our school and bring us gifts.”

Arurang has fond memories of the USS Peleliu, a ship named after the famous battle, docking off the island and troops driving hovercrafts onto the beach to pick people up in order to give them a tour of the ship.

Arurang spent his childhood on Peleliu from the age of two until he graduated from high school at the age of 18. Growing up on the island, he couldn’t help but become familiar with the history that took place there more than 70 years ago.

“As a kid we would go swimming with friends at the beaches, and all over the island were different monuments dedicated to the battle,” added Arurang.  “There are old tanks and shot down airplanes that are set up as memorials all around the island.”

            Arurang was raised by his grandmother, a native of the Palau islands, who was around the age of 15 at the time of the battle. “My grandmother hardly spoke of what happened back then,” said Arurang. He does, however, remember stories about when his grandmother was forced to evacuate prior to the battle. “Before the Marines hit the beach, they evacuated everyone off the island onto another larger island. She was pregnant with her third child [during the evacuation].”

            Maj. Gen. William Rupertus, then commander of 1st Marine Division, originally predicted the Battle of Peleliu to last approximately four days.  However, the Japanese were well prepared and fortified, causing the battle to last more than two months. The Marines of 1st Marine Division and III Marine Expeditionary Force, along with the U.S. Army 81st Infantry Division, finally defeated the Japanese and secured the island on Nov. 27, ending a long 73-day battle.

Due to the sacrifices those Marines and soldiers made to secure the island, the people of Peleliu hold Americans in high regard.

“The people of Peleliu love the Marines and America,” said Arurang. “Most [Palauans] want to join the Army, but people from Peleliu want to join the Marines.”

At the age of 18 Arurang moved to Seattle, Washington to live with his uncle and attend college at the behest of his mother. Arurang had other plans.

“I wanted to find a way to pay for college and I knew the Marine Corps would help me with that,” said Arurang. “I also wanted to wear the same boots those Marines wore who fought in the Battle of Peleliu.”

Arurang enlisted in the Marines in January 2010 and has plans to join the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Educational Program, a program which offers qualified Marines the chance to go to a four-year college full-time, while maintaining active-duty status and pay. For him, being a Marine is just as much a part of his identity as being from Peleliu.

“Seeing this uniform brings me back to my childhood,” said Arurang. “It gives me a constant connection to where I grew up and a connection with the Marines who lost their lives in the battle.”