'Tarawa' doc helps give closure

April 21, 2009 For Steven C. Barber, a chance encounter with an 87-year-old World War II veteran led to the fulfillment of a 25-year dream he hadn't realized he was pursuing. Barber had met Albert while mountain biking in the Pacific Palisades more than a dozen years before, and as they became friends, Albert pulled out his collection of Life magazine photo spreads that documented the deaths of 1,113 marines on the island of Tarawa. A mismanaged and misjudged amphibious landing resulted in American soldiers wading hundreds of yards to the shore in the face of 500 Japanese machine gun nests.

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