Tribute to Floyd Eugene Arey
No Photo Available
Branch of Service: US Marines
Unit: Unknown
Specialty: Flamethrower operator
Highest Rank: Private, First Class
Floyd Eugene Arey was the son of Claude and Julia Anderson Arey of El Dorado, Kansas. Floyd was born in Pomona, Kansas on December 9th, 1925, but grew up in El Dorado.
At age 17, Floyd tried to enlist 3 times in the Marines. He was not accepted because of deafness in one ear. His mother finally signed papers stating that he was 18, thus allowing him to enlist in 1943. After boot camp, he went to Hawaii for 6 weeks. While there, he met a man from Homewood, Kansas, but he was from a different division. That man later told Julia (Floyd's mother) that Floyd's division had been sent to Saipan Island, and that Floyd was a flamethrower operator. Flamethrowers were used to rout the Japanese soldiers out of caves. Floyd was on the island two days before he was shot and killed in a cane field. He was buried on the island.
In 1948, after the war was over, Julia had the U.S. military send his body to her home in Ottawa, Kansas, after being buried on Saipan for four years. She kept the casket with his remains in her home for 3 or 4 days. Services were then held and he was permanently buried at Highland Cemetery in Ottawa, Kansas.
Submitted by Barbara Redburn
Updated 7/6/09