The Marines learned a lesson in what not to do at Peleliu; however, for Ken Lapham it was a costly lesson.

Kenneth Lloyd Lapham was born on December 29, 1922, in Yuma Arizona, to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Lapham. No further information is available regarding his family and early life. The Laphams moved to Watsonville in 1939, where Ken worked at the O. O. Eaton lettuce shed.

In January 1942, Lapham enlisted in the US Marine Corps and was sent to San Diego for his basic and school-of-infantry training. He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division and fought with them throughout the Pacific. He was then sent to Peleliu.

“[Peleliu was] The site of an important Japanese air base during World War II. Some American war planners viewed the Palaus Island chain as a stepping-stone on the way back to the Philippines; others thought it should be bypassed. The decision was made in mid-1944 to seize three of the southern Palaus. First to be invaded was Peleliu. The US First Marine Division, under Gen. William H. Rupertus, landed early on 15 September 1944. The 10,000-strong Japanese force, strongly entrenched in the island's central ridge system, fought back stubbornly. It took over two months and the addition of an entire regiment to subdue the last Japanese defenders. While nearly 2,000 Americans died in taking Peleliu, some questioned its value. Airfields on Peleliu, it was discovered, could not support the Philippine invasion in the manner expected.”

Lapham wrote home to his parents earlier saying that he had encountered some, "pretty close calls." Later he was not so lucky. On September 29, 1944, Private First Class Kenneth Lloyd Lapham died from the wounds that he had received at Peleliu.

The remains of Kenneth Lapham were returned and buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno, California, in 1948.

(USDVA; WRP October 23, 1944 1:3; Answers.Com, Peleliu; http://www.answers.com/topic/peleliu, [16 September 2008])