Richard Malcolm Stewart was born on 6 December 1919 in Alberta, Canada to James Kirk and Florence Irene (Bugbee) Stewart; he had two brothers; dad worked the copper mines in Arizona before the family moved to Washington by the 1940 census. Richard married Jeanette Frances Williams on 2 January 1939. He registered for the draft on 1 July 1941 from Vancouver standing 5’11” tall, weighing 165 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair; he had a tattoo of a heart on his right forearm and thumb and a star and diamond on his left forearm; he was working for the Aluminum Company of America.

PFC Richard Malcolm Stewart (service number 456124) served with Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Division as they fought the Battle of Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. They were to secure the airstrip to prevent Japanese forces from getting closer to the US and was 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. For those who survived the landing, they faced a network of obstacles manned by determined defenders with fighting close range and savage. It is uncertain whether PFC Richard Stewart survived the landing but he gave his life on 20 November 1943; he is listed in the Courts of the Missing, Honolulu, Hawaii as many fallen are buried in mass graves on the islands, yet to be identified.

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 M Stewart