Join The Explorers Club on May 20th to hear the fascinating story of a 1997 expedition to Makin Island in the Pacific Ocean, where Explorers Club Member Harry Brooks worked to recover and honor the remains of nineteen World War II marines.
In 1997 Harry Brooks led fellow explorers to Butaritari, a small island in the Pacific known as Makin Island during WWII. Makin Island was also the location of a famous amphibious assault led in 1942 by Lt. Colonel Evans Carlson. Carlson popularized the phrase “Gung Ho” which he had picked up fighting alongside Chinese guerillas. Nineteen of “Carlson’s Raiders” were killed and not recovered. By happenstance, Brook’s group discovered a partially exposed skeleton in the jungle. The doctors in the group said that the height of the person would have been much taller than the average local. Brooks and Marine Raider veterans persuaded the Military Identification Unit in Hawaii to send a team to Makin Island. That expedition failed, but undeterred Brooks and the Raders Association push for a second attempt which succeeded. The bodies of all nineteen Raiders were recovered, and many were reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery.
This inaugural Memorial Day Public Lecture is a collaboration between the Public Lectures Committee and the Explorers Club Military and Veteran Initiative, and will be part of the official New York City Fleet Week.
This in-person event at the Explorers Club Headquarters will include an audience Q&A.
Streaming live here on explorers.org, our YouTube Channel, and our Facebook Live — Monday, May 20th at 7:00 pm ET.
RESERVATIONS
This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters.
In-person tickets are $15 for Members, and $30 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Harry Brooks MED'93
Harry Brooks was elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club in 1993. in addition to being a Sweeney Medalist, he has served The Explorers Club as a Director for 6 years, the Atlanta Chapter Chair for 4 years, , and chair of several committees including Flag & Honors, Legal, Nominating, and Membership. He was also the assistant treasurer and the Club Ombudsman.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina, Brooks joined the U. S. Marine Corps where he served as a Naval Flight Officer flying the F4 Phantom. After 7 years in the Marines Brooks served in the Air National Guard where he flew the RF4C and the F105G Wild Weasel.
In addition to the Butaritari’ expedition, Brooks has carried TEC Flags to Papaua New Guinea (entomology samples for the University of Georgia); Roatan Honduras (coral reef & fish survey); Belize (reef fish survey); Tarawa Atoll (coral reef survey); Midway Atoll (coral reef survey); Bonaire (survey of the Mary Bohn); Easter Island (search for Dutch founder’s anchor; ; and two ethno diversity and biodiversity studies in the Peruvian Amazon (one with 11 Atlanta area students).
In addition to his finance and law degrees, our speaker has graduated from several military schools including Marine Corps Air Combat School, the Navy Air Intelligence School, USAF Fighter Weapons, USAF Electronic Warfare and the Air Force Flying Safety Course at the University of Southern California.
After he completed law school, Brooks began his career at International Loss Management as an air safety investigator and aviation claims adjuster. He has investigated over 5,000 aviation accidents and incidents. Harry has spoken to many aviation insurance and air safety groups, including the NTSB, the FAA and the Aviation Insurance Association (among others). He has consulted with major law firms and testified as a pilot expert. He is now the President of President at International Loss Management located in Atlanta.
Robert Killorin
Bob Killorin is a lawyer from Atlanta. He was Chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the Explorers Club for three years. He is a certified cave diver, a certified trimix diver, and NAUI Scuba Instructor. He was a team member of the Butaritari Expedition and provided logistical support for the scuba operations, including the purchase of and shipment of a portable air compressor. He was also the underwater digital videographer for the expedition. He has participated in a number of dive expeditions around the world including such places as Midway Island and Easter Island and underwater caves in the United States. He lead an expedition to Bonaire to study and document the deep wreck of and attendant deep tar spill of the three-masted iron-hulled sailing ship, the Mari Bahn. He a member of the U.S. Deep Cave Diving Team and was a underwater digital videographer for the Wakulla II cave mapping expedition in Florida. He is currently a partner at the New York based law firm of Faruqi & Faruqi LLP and is the co-chair its securities litigation department.
