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Donna Esposito
Longer and Longer Shadows:
My Search For a Missing Marine
From a chance encounter on Guadalcanal to the top of an infamous peak on Peleliu, my search for missing-in-action Marine PFC Haig Sarafian has taken me to unexpected places and revealed an unbelievable story of a young man from Philadelphia who made the ultimate sacrifice on the other side of the world in 1944, just days before his 19th birthday.
I visited Peleliu for the 75th anniversary of the start of the battle in September 2019 to honor PFC Sarafian and all who fought and died there. And maybe get a better idea of what happened to him. Here is my tribute to PFC Sarafian on White Beach, where he landed exactly 75 years before with C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. Kindly filmed by Bill Francis.
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