BRINGING HIM HOME: Return from Guadalcanal, 82 Years Later

Post 54 member Jim Morrison will be showing his 68-minute documentary, titled Bringing Him Home: Return from Guadalcanal, 82 Years Later, on Tuesday, June 16, at 2:00 p.m., at the Moneta/Smith Mountain Lake Library (13641 Moneta Roan, Moneta, VA 24121). The presentation is free and open to the public, but advance registration is requested by calling the library at 540-425-7004.

The documentary is the story of Bedford County resident Morris E. Canady, who, at age 20, five weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After training, Morris was deployed to Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, where he was killed in action in September 1942. Fellow Marines buried Morris and nine others in the active field of battle and drew sketches to help with recovery of the remains. Searches in the 1940s were successful, and his remains were declared “non-recoverable.”

The documentary also is the story of the remarkable efforts of the Department in Defense, starting in 2012, to resume research and searching for the remains of Morris and, finally, in 2024, to locate, recover, and identify with the help of DNA the remains and then return them to family in Bedford with Marine escort. Included in the documentary is the assistance with the memorial and burial services that Bedford’s American Legion Post 54 provided the Canady family.

The documentary uses over 20 videos and over 150 photos, plus six interviews and Marine Corps records, to follow Morris from his early life to his joining the Marines, undergoing Marine training, and deploying to Guadalcanal. It summarizes the Guadalcanal campaign before addressing Morris death in combat and the efforts to recover his remains and return them to family, followed by the memorial and burial ceremonies, in which Marines and Legionnaires participated.