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Location
Located slightly to the east and inland from Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.
Wartime History
American established a cemetery here for their dead form the Guadalcanal campaign. By 1943 the cemetery was well developed included a chapel made of local materials and a large cross, surrounded by machine gun ammunition and 37mm shells. On September 17, 1943 Eleanor Roosevelt visited the grave yard during her day on Guadalcanal during her Pacific tour.
Postwar
After the war, all bodies where exhumed and
sent to the United States, and the graveyard abandoned.
Today
This location is 500 yards behind (towards the sea) of the modern day
site
of the
Airport Motel.
Headstone Discoveries
During 2003 and the RAMSI operations on Guadalcanal,
the Australian forces used the hotel as part of their base, and located
several gravestones from the old cemetery. Although these were
not in anyway associated with remains, they are interesting relics. American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was alerted to their presence, but was uninterested
in them. But, many of these concrete slabs were made by buddies or
friends, and some quite elaborate in their sentiments or messages to
the fallen.
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Last Updated
October 6, 2009
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