This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO3 Manuel (Manny) Vizinho
to remember
Marine PltSgt Joseph Steve Bellat.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Cleveland
Last Address Cleveland
Casualty Date Oct 14, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location Palau
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Fort William McKinley Cemetery - Taguig City, Manila, Philippines
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
