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Pamela LaVerne Jeans-Historian
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Marine PFC Wilsie H Bitsie (Navajo Code Talker (first 29)).
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Contact Info
Home Town Mexican Springs
Last Address Mexican Springs
Date of Passing May 05, 2000
Location of Interment Lone Pine Cemetery - Mexican Springs, New Mexico
MEXICAN SPRINGS — Funeral services for Wilsie H. Bitsie, 78, will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday at the First United Methodist Church in Gallup. The Rev. Stanley Jim will officiate. Burial will be in Lone Pine Cemetery in Mexican Springs.
Visitation will be held at 7 tonight, May 9, at Rollie Mortuary Memorial Chapel in Gallup.
Bitsie died May 5 in Gallup. He was born Feb. 22, 1922, in Tohatchi for the Folded Arms People Clan into the Red Running into the Water People Clan.
Bitsie attended school in Naschitti, Rehoboth, Gallup High School and Albuquerque Indian School.
He was one of the first 29 orginal US Marine Corps "Navajo Code Talkers" during World War II.
He was employed in forestry with the Tohatchi Lookout Station, M.S. Soil Conservation Service, BIA Boarding School, Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma, Tuba City Navajo Agency Education Employment Assistance Office and Crownpoint Eastern Navajo Agency. He retired after 40 years.
Bitsie participated on boards of the Western Navajo Fair and Rodeo, Crownpoint Fair and Rodeo, Navajo Tribal Fair and Rodeo, Rodeo Board Committee, Mexican Springs All Indian Junior Rodeo Association and Roping Club.
He helped plant by horse and plow, tending to farm animals and herding the family sheep and goats.
Survivors include his sisters, Barbara Bahe, Caroline Becenti, Eleanor Bitsie, Elizabeth Jones and MaeBelle Thomas, all of Mexican Springs; and brothers, Arthur Bitsie of Farmington, Donald Bitsie of Fullerton, Calif., Calvin Bitsie, Peter Bitsie, Walter Bitsie Jr., all of Mexican Springs, and Richard Bitsie of Navajo.
Bitsie was preceded in death by parents, Walter and Freda Bitsie; brother, Henry Bitsie; and sister, Wilhemena Bitsie.
Pallbearers will be Steven C. Becenti, Delbert Bitsie, Floyd Leon Bitsie, Greg Bitsie, Erwin Bitsilly and William Jones Jr.
The family will have relatives and friends at William and Elizabeth Jones' residence.
Rollie Mortuary of Gallup is in charge of the arrangements.
Other Comments:
Lone Pine Cemetery Mexican Springs McKinley County New Mexico, USA
The 4th Marine Regiment was first activated in April 1914 as part of the Marine Corps' Advances Base Force. The regiment was deployed to the Dominican Republic the following year for a peacekeeping duty that lasted ten years. The 4th Marines were reassigned to San Diego in 1924. Two years later, the regiment was assigned to mail guard duty in the western United States. In early 1927, it sailed for Shanghai. Their principal mission: to protect American lives and property. Despite periodic outbreaks of internal disorder, most of the 4th Marines' 14-year tour in China was a relatively peaceful garrison duty. In late 1941, war loomed in the Far East. On November 28, the era of the China Marines ended, as the last of the regiment set sail for the Philippines.
They arrived on December 1 and were assigned to protect the naval station at Olongapo and nearby Mariveles. Seven days later, Japanese troops landed in Luzon and the 4th Marines were placed under U.S. Army control and subsequently assigned to defend the island fortress of Corregidor, which guards the entrance to Manila Bay. Over the next four months, the 4th Marines grew from a two-battalion regiment to one of five battalions, in the process becoming one of the oldest units in Marine Corps history. As defensive positions fell and units disintegrated, stragglers from the U.S. Army and Navy, as well as small Filipino units were assigned to it. Resistance on the Bataan Peninsula ended on April 9. This permitted Japanese artillery to concentrate on Corregidor. Landing craft began moving toward the island the evening of May 5. At noon the next day, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, commander of U.S. Forces in the Philippines, surrendered. The 4th Marines burned their colors and -- temporarily -- ceased to exist.
The regiment was reborn in February 1944, when it was reconstituted in Guadalcanal from units of the 1st Marine Raider Regiment. The new 4th Marine Regiment seized Emirau Island in the Central Pacific. Then, as a part the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, it took part in the recapture of Guam. The brigade soon became the 6th Marine Division and with its other regiments, the 4th Marines landed on Okinawa on April 1, 1945. Following the Japanese surrender, the 4th Marines were detached and ordered to occupy the Japanese naval base at Yokusoko. Subsequently, as a part of the post-World War II drawdown, the regiment was inactivated.
In 1951, the 4th Marine Regiment was reactivated at Camp Pendleton, California. It sailed for Japan the following year with the rest of the 3rd Marine Division. When the division was reassigned to Okinawa in 1955, the 4th Marines moved to Kaneohe, Hawaii, where they stayed until the division was committed to Vietnam in 1965. In 1972, the regiment took up residence on Okinawa, its current home base. In 1990-91, the 4th Marines took part in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as part of the III Marine Amphibious Force. Since then, 4th Marine Regiment has been involved in many joint exercises that have taken the regiment all across Asia and the Middle East.