Maui resident Alexandra Bonnyman Prejean was not quite 2 years old when she said goodbye to her father, who left his wife and three kids in Santa Fe, N.M., to join the Marines and fight the war in the Pacific.

First Lt. Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman Jr. was killed in the bloody World War II Battle of Tarawa in Micronesia, one of four Medal of Honor recipients and, according to one source, among more than 6,400 Americans, Japanese and Koreans who died Nov. 20-23, 1943.

“When he was killed, I was five days shy of being 3,” said Prejean, the youngest of his three daughters. “I don’t remember him, but I certainly remember all the details.”

Bonnyman’s Medal of Honor citation says as executive officer of the 2nd Battalion shore party, with the 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, he led his men off Betio Pier under heavy fire to the beach. The next day he voluntarily crawled 40 yards past U.S. lines and placed explosives in the entrance to a Japanese bunker. He returned with his men, directing them to place more explosives, killing more than 100 Japanese.

Bonnyman made a “heroic stand” on the edge of the bunker and killed three more of the enemy before he was killed, the citation said.

The location of Bonnyman’s grave remained a mystery until March, when a long-lost burial trench was located on Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll.

On July 26, nearly 72 years after his death, the 74-year-old Prejean was on hand at Hangar 35, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, to welcome her father home.

Prejean described the moment as “total chicken skin.”

“At the best of times, I have a hard time not just sobbing,” but when the bugler played taps, “the windshield wipers were really working,” she said.

Bonnyman’s remains were among those of 36 Marines discovered in a sandy grave on Tarawa, in what is now the Republic of Kiribati, by archaeologists from History Flight, a Florida private nonprofit. The Marines arrived in 36 flag-enrobed metal caskets, ceremoniously placed inside the hangar by white-gloved Marine pallbearers.

Prejean, the only family member of any of the Marines to attend the quiet ceremony, stood solemnly as the caskets were brought in one by one, not knowing which held her father’s remains.

Bonnyman was the only Marine identified, thanks to his unique gold dental work.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency expects to positively identify all 36 sets of remains by early fall before they will be returned to their families.

Looking back, Prejean said her father’s death was hard on the eldest, Frances, six years her senior, and middle sister, Josephine. Frances, she said, was 12 when she accepted the Medal of Honor in Washington, D.C., on her father’s behalf.

“In those days nobody talked about death or what happened,” Prejean said. “When (Frances) walked in the room, everybody was just quiet. Nobody consoled her. It doesn’t make it easier.”

The children had the support of their mother and other family members, but it was still tough, she said.

“You muddle through,” she said. “I wish more people realize the sacrifice … of people killed in battle, what the family goes through.”

Bonnyman’s widow and daughter Josephine have died, never to know of his return.

Prejean said her father didn’t have to go to war. He owned a copper mine in Santa Rosa, N.M., was 30 or 31, had three children and had served in the Army Air Corps, Prejean said.

“After Pearl Harbor he said, ‘I’m going.’”

Prejean grew up knowing her father through stories, especially on visits with her grandparents in Knoxville, Tenn., where Bonnyman was born and raised.

“He was bigger than life,” she said. “He was a great hero. My grandfather really tried so hard to get his remains returned and actually find out what happened. He has a marvelous album he put together.”

In that album is a photo of her father taken on the battlefield in Tarawa. Her grandfather obtained the photo by contacting people who had been on Tarawa, including battle photographers Norm Hatch and Obie Newcomb.

Prejean, who has visited Tarawa Atoll, praised History Flight, founder and director Mark Noah and others for their hard work.

“Thirty-six bodies from that atoll, that battle, from World War II,” she said. “It is over the top. I take my hat off to him.”

Prejean said she will return to Honolulu when her father’s remains are released to the family, although she declined an invitation to see the skeletal remains.

She wants to remember him, as she does, from the photos and portraits.

Bonnyman’s final resting place awaits him in Knoxville.

“My grandfather erected a headstone for him,” she said. “All the family is now buried there except for him.”