.

I imagine dying across the world, alone but I've retained consciousness and I wait for 74 years for someone to find me and send me home

I'm not the emotional type, but damn

That's great, unfortunately not in time for their parents to have closure.

For the op.

LINK

I have the company book in my office right now

well right when it gets to the 2/8 a huge chunk of the page is missing.

it's the only page in the book with text ripped out.

You should go. Tarawa was hell and is one of the USMCs "finest hours" (there are many).

There isn't much I admire about the federal government but the Marine corps is something I do admire.

Fox I am guessing this is your Marine?

LINK

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, recently accounted-for from World War II, are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.


Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Sidney A. Cook, 32, of Ohio, will be buried Sept. 6, in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. In November 1943, Cook was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Cook died on the first day of the battle, Nov. 20, 1943

In June 2015, a nongovernmental organization, History Flight, Inc., notified DPAA that they discovered a burial site on Betio Island and recovered the remains of what they believed were 35 U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943. The remains were turned over to DPAA in July 2015.


To identify Cook’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, which matched a nephew, dental and anthropological analysis, which matched his records, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.


DPAA is appreciative to History Flight, Inc. and their partnership for this recovery mission.


Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 73,022 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Cook’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at an American Battle Monuments Commission site along with the other MIAs from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

My grandfather was in that invasion force. I still don't know how he ever made it home.

The things those men saw and hardships they faced would have made me crumble.

RIP S.R. Stephens and the great men who sacrificed it all.

From DPAA here is Fox's guy.

Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Raymond C. Snapp, killed during World War II, has now been accounted for.


In November 1943, Snapp was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Snapp died sometime on the first day of battle, Nov. 20, 1943.