May 27, 2024 - By Jeff Jardine - Marine veteran Albert Bonin had one last hill to take — one last mission to carry out — as his health began to fail in 2008. This one involved memories and words instead of bullets, mortars, and grenades. The Irvine resident, then in his late 80s, deemed it nearly as important as what he and his platoon members were confronted with on Okinawa in 1945.

We observe Memorial Day each year as the national day of mourning and reverence for those who died defending our nation and its Constitution. But how they died — the ferocity of the battle, the circumstances — can leave some kin looking for answers even decades later.

Such was the case for Georgia resident Adam Shepherd who, in January 2008, reached out to the 6th Marine Division web forum seeking any available information about his grandfather, Robert Shepherd of Virginia. He served in 6th Marine Division, Company D, and was killed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

“Unfortunately, little about my grandfather ever came down through the family,” Adam said.

Among the first to see Adam’s post was Bonin, who had served alongside “Shep,” as Robert Shepherd was known affectionately in the unit. Bonin had just been diagnosed with cancer at the time, and he spent nearly half of his last two years writing about Shep and the events that led to his death. His son, Gary Bonin — loan production manager for CalVet’s Home Loans — made frequent trips to Irvine to help his dad sculpt the letters into precisely the form and with the detail Albert believed would be worthy of Shep’s memory.

Gary Bonin with a photo of his grandfather Albert.

“That was what he wanted to do,” Gary Bonin said. “My sister and I helped him tighten it up. That’s who he was. He understood the importance of family.”

Born in Italy in 1920, Umberto “Albert” Bonin and his family came to America when he was seven years old. He went on to earn his bachelor of science degree from the University of Idaho in 1944.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps that same year, serving during World War II with the decorated 6th Marine Division. During the Battle of Okinawa, his D Company was among the Allied forces that made 11 separate assaults, from April to June 1945, before finally taking the famed Sugar Loaf Hill. It came at a cost of more than 3,000 American casualties. Bonin and most others in his D Company were wounded and received Purple Hearts.

At 24, he was among the elder statesmen of the squad that included many Marines who were fresh out of high school. He wasn’t the oldest, though. That distinction belonged to Shepherd, who enlisted at age 27, despite being married and father of two children.

His son (Adam’s dad) Jack was seven years-old when Shep died. Jack Shepherd knew only that his dad served in D Company and was killed in action on Okinawa. The family knew none of the details, and rarely spoke of him after his wife remarried, Adam Shepard said.

“My grandfather was a bit of an enigma because I knew so little of him,” Shepherd told CalVet Connect. “I suspect that many of the servicemembers who were (killed in action) were in some ways silenced because of the pain that it caused to the spouses and family. I never heard much about him from my family.”

That relative silence piqued Adam’s interest, which is why he posted on the 6th Marine Division web forum. That, in turn, led to Albert Bonin’s response roughly nine months later, on October 9, 2008 — about 18 months before he died in April 2010

Bonin detailed a journey that began when D Company formed in May 1944, and trained at both Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Camp Pendleton, California. They eventually boarded a troop transport to Guadalcanal, where they spent eight months before the invasion of Okinawa began on April 1, 1945. Bonin recalled surviving three consecutive nights of kamikaze attacks involving 1,800 Japanese planes in all.

A corporal, Bonin described their assignment to relieve the 22^nd Regiment that became Shep’s first of two trips up Sugar Loaf Hill. There, a lieutenant was killed by a mortar in his foxhole during the 10^th and last failed assault of the hill. The next assault succeeded.

“Shep saw the last effort of enemy and in the morning, he saw our final action in the fight for the hill,” Bonin wrote.  “(The) Sugar Loaf saga was over.”

D Company then pushed on toward the Okinawan city of Naha, battling Japanese forces along more ridges and hills. After taking a hill without resistance, they were told to dig in for the night. Shep flung a piece of gear over his shoulder and headed to find a spot.

“He had just reached the top of the ridge and we heard the loud sound of a rifle shot,” Bonin wrote. “His arms and tripod flew straight up in the air; his body fell over the ridge… the squad patriarch was gone.”

Bonin then eulogized Shep in a way his family back home could truly appreciate.

“Robert Lee Shepherd will always be ‘Shep,’ to me,” Bonin wrote. “He was the ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ in our squad. He was a gentleman and gentle man, perhaps with a tinge of shyness. No-nonsense, soft spoken, never raised his voice, totally honest, and 100% dependable person. A rare man indeed. Shep was a father figure to the rest of the squad, so we had a happy group; all living in the same tent, eating, drilling, and sleeping together. We became a close family of brothers.”

Adam Shepherd with a photo of his grandfather, Robert.

Bonin attended a squad reunion on Cape Cod in 1985 that was covered by local newspapers. In fact, Bonin planned to invite Adam to attend one of their reunions as a surprise guest, but the event didn’t happen. He did, however, connect Adam with other members of D Company, who also reminisced about Shep.

“Al and the people in his platoon added so much more color to who Robert was and his experiences,” Adam said. “I’ve shared that with my family including his son, my father. He deeply appreciated that insight because his father’s death impacted him to the end of his life. He had a challenging childhood and as a stepson felt conflicted because of how he was passed around. I think that knowing something about his father helped heal some of that pain that he endured so long ago.”

Adam said his own sons gained a greater appreciation of their great-grandfather’s supreme sacrifice as well. Bonin and Shep’s other D Company comrades provided the insight and perspective Adam needed.

“Personally, it’s helped me to know a man that has stared back at me in a picture I’ve seen all of my life,” he said. “I feel like in some ways I can reach back in time and understand him better and appreciate what he did. I later served myself, and I know that in some way that was because of what he did so long ago.”

Consequently, Shep’s family can draw on the memories of those who knew and served with him each Memorial Day.

Albert Bonin’s final mission completed, his last hill taken.