II MEF Videos

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Michael L. Reynolds from Hatboro, Pennsylvania, a combat artist with II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF), draws a battle scene from a display of the battle of Tarawa located at the II MEF and 2d Marine Division headquarters building at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Dec. 18, 2023. Reynolds drew the art piece to commemorate the heroic actions of Marines who fought in the battle of Tarawa, and the Combat Artists who preserve history. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Lance Cpl. Emily Hazelbaker, Sgt. Josue Marquez, Master Sgt. Daniel Brown and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Izzel Sanchez) (Music and graphics licensed from Adobe Stock and Pond5)

Marines with 2nd Marine Division began their assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on Nov. 22, 1943, during World War II. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Leynard Plazo)

Marines with 2nd Marine Division began their assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on Nov. 23, 1943, during World War II. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Leynard Plazo)

Marines with 2nd Marine Division began their assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on Nov. 21, 1943, during World War II. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Leynard Plazo)

Marines with 2nd Marine Division began their assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on Nov. 20, 1943, during World War II. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Leynard Plazo)

Seventy-four years ago; Marines assaulted the island of Betio on the Tarawa Atoll. The Japanese commander said it would take one million men one hundred years to conquer Tarawa. It took the Marines three days.