Richard Gordon Wright was born on 6 June 1921 in Sparks, Lincoln county, Oklahoma to Henry Lloyd and Grace Elzora (Gaines) Wright; he had three siblings. Richard registered for the draft on 16 February 1942 standing 5’9” tall, weighing 140 pounds with brown eyes and blonde hair; he was unemployed at the time. He enlisted on 3 September of that year and was with the 2nd Anti-Tank Battalion.

Private Richard Gordon Wright (service number 447376) began, on 9 October 1943, to serve with “K” Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division as they fought during the Battle of Tarawa, Gilbert Islands beginning 20 November 1943. They were to secure the airstrip to prevent Japanese forces from getting closer to the US as well as the airstrip being crucial for the US offensive across the central Pacific. The initial landing was hampered by low tides forcing US troops to leave landing craft and wade ashore. Unfortunately for the Marines, the beach was shaped in such a way that it created a crossfire by the Japanese on shore; casualties were highest this day and many never set foot on the beach. For those who survived the landing, they faced a network of obstacles with fighting close in and savage; forty artillery pieces, nearly 500 pillboxes and a system of trenches and fortifications manned by trained, determined Japanese forces. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history. It was on this day, 20 November 1943, that Pvt. Richard Wright gave his life when the LVT he was being transported on was hit by machine gun and anti-boat fire; he is listed on the Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

SOURCES: Find-a-Grave; FamilySearch.org; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia

Richard G Wright