Bartholomew Wanagaitis was a soft spoken, private man residing in Scranton, Pennsylvania when he decided to join the Marine Corps.
He was sent to boot camp on Parris Island, then to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he met and trained with other men who chose crew-serviced weapons as their specialty. Wanagaitis was a mortarman, and he sweated through many training exercises in North Carolina and California with the heavy 60mm mortar and its ammunition. The origins of his nickname, "Taxi," have been lost to time, though it seems likely that he reminded the men of the character Taxi in the film Guadalcanal Diary - a motion picture in which the 24th Marines appeared as extras. "Taxi" had a ready sense of humor, and in pictures taken during training he seems to be barely suppressing a smile.
Taxi landed on Namur with his gun crew, and served through that battle and the following Saipan campaign without a scratch. He was hit and evacuated on Tinian, and the wound was bad enough to land him in hospital for several weeks - the exact duration and nature of his wound is unknown, but his kinky blond hair is conspicuously absent from photographs of Able Company after Tinian.
Taxi was promoted to corporal before Iwo Jima, and by January 1945 was probably leading his own mortar team.
On the night of February 20, Able Company was hit hard by Japanese artillery. Marine artillery, firing on the wrong coordinates, began blasting the company's position as well, adding to the terror and misery. The company took 22 casualties, of whom nine were killed. Taxi Wanagaitis was carried away on a stretcher, killed by a shrapnel fragment that tore his back open. Whether the shell was Japanese or American could not be determined.
Taxi was buried in grave 583, Row 12, Plot 1, 4 MarDiv Cemetery, on 3/1/1945. After the war, his remains were returned to St. Joseph's Cemetery in Throop.
He was sent to boot camp on Parris Island, then to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he met and trained with other men who chose crew-serviced weapons as their specialty. Wanagaitis was a mortarman, and he sweated through many training exercises in North Carolina and California with the heavy 60mm mortar and its ammunition. The origins of his nickname, "Taxi," have been lost to time, though it seems likely that he reminded the men of the character Taxi in the film Guadalcanal Diary - a motion picture in which the 24th Marines appeared as extras. "Taxi" had a ready sense of humor, and in pictures taken during training he seems to be barely suppressing a smile.
Taxi landed on Namur with his gun crew, and served through that battle and the following Saipan campaign without a scratch. He was hit and evacuated on Tinian, and the wound was bad enough to land him in hospital for several weeks - the exact duration and nature of his wound is unknown, but his kinky blond hair is conspicuously absent from photographs of Able Company after Tinian.
Taxi was promoted to corporal before Iwo Jima, and by January 1945 was probably leading his own mortar team.
On the night of February 20, Able Company was hit hard by Japanese artillery. Marine artillery, firing on the wrong coordinates, began blasting the company's position as well, adding to the terror and misery. The company took 22 casualties, of whom nine were killed. Taxi Wanagaitis was carried away on a stretcher, killed by a shrapnel fragment that tore his back open. Whether the shell was Japanese or American could not be determined.
Taxi was buried in grave 583, Row 12, Plot 1, 4 MarDiv Cemetery, on 3/1/1945. After the war, his remains were returned to St. Joseph's Cemetery in Throop.
Bartholomew Wanagaitis was a soft spoken, private man residing in Scranton, Pennsylvania when he decided to join the Marine Corps.
He was sent to boot camp on Parris Island, then to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he met and trained with other men who chose crew-serviced weapons as their specialty. Wanagaitis was a mortarman, and he sweated through many training exercises in North Carolina and California with the heavy 60mm mortar and its ammunition. The origins of his nickname, "Taxi," have been lost to time, though it seems likely that he reminded the men of the character Taxi in the film Guadalcanal Diary - a motion picture in which the 24th Marines appeared as extras. "Taxi" had a ready sense of humor, and in pictures taken during training he seems to be barely suppressing a smile.
Taxi landed on Namur with his gun crew, and served through that battle and the following Saipan campaign without a scratch. He was hit and evacuated on Tinian, and the wound was bad enough to land him in hospital for several weeks - the exact duration and nature of his wound is unknown, but his kinky blond hair is conspicuously absent from photographs of Able Company after Tinian.
Taxi was promoted to corporal before Iwo Jima, and by January 1945 was probably leading his own mortar team.
On the night of February 20, Able Company was hit hard by Japanese artillery. Marine artillery, firing on the wrong coordinates, began blasting the company's position as well, adding to the terror and misery. The company took 22 casualties, of whom nine were killed. Taxi Wanagaitis was carried away on a stretcher, killed by a shrapnel fragment that tore his back open. Whether the shell was Japanese or American could not be determined.
Taxi was buried in grave 583, Row 12, Plot 1, 4 MarDiv Cemetery, on 3/1/1945. After the war, his remains were returned to St. Joseph's Cemetery in Throop.
He was sent to boot camp on Parris Island, then to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he met and trained with other men who chose crew-serviced weapons as their specialty. Wanagaitis was a mortarman, and he sweated through many training exercises in North Carolina and California with the heavy 60mm mortar and its ammunition. The origins of his nickname, "Taxi," have been lost to time, though it seems likely that he reminded the men of the character Taxi in the film Guadalcanal Diary - a motion picture in which the 24th Marines appeared as extras. "Taxi" had a ready sense of humor, and in pictures taken during training he seems to be barely suppressing a smile.
Taxi landed on Namur with his gun crew, and served through that battle and the following Saipan campaign without a scratch. He was hit and evacuated on Tinian, and the wound was bad enough to land him in hospital for several weeks - the exact duration and nature of his wound is unknown, but his kinky blond hair is conspicuously absent from photographs of Able Company after Tinian.
Taxi was promoted to corporal before Iwo Jima, and by January 1945 was probably leading his own mortar team.
On the night of February 20, Able Company was hit hard by Japanese artillery. Marine artillery, firing on the wrong coordinates, began blasting the company's position as well, adding to the terror and misery. The company took 22 casualties, of whom nine were killed. Taxi Wanagaitis was carried away on a stretcher, killed by a shrapnel fragment that tore his back open. Whether the shell was Japanese or American could not be determined.
Taxi was buried in grave 583, Row 12, Plot 1, 4 MarDiv Cemetery, on 3/1/1945. After the war, his remains were returned to St. Joseph's Cemetery in Throop.
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