November 28, 2008, Malibu, CA – Leon Cooper's plane will arrive at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC on December 7, 2008. The World War II combat veteran is making the trip to meet with members of Congress, following up on his efforts for the past three years to have the US Government remove the garbage that litters Red Beach in Tarawa, the hallowed ground where hundreds of Americans died in the battle that came to be known as "Bloody Tarawa"– three days of savagery where more than a thousand Americans died and more than two thousand were wounded. The Tarawa battle was the first major amphibious assault in the Central Pacific on a Japanese stronghold during the Pacific War.
