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U.S. NEWS Thursday 27 June 2019

Graves of US WWII servicemen unearthed on Pacific island

By AUDREY McAVOY eteries where they fell. But hind parts of individuals
Associated Press Navy construction battal- during this process.
HONOLULU (AP) — An orga- ion sailors removed mark- History Flight is now thor-
nization that searches for ers for these graves when oughly excavating these
the remains of U.S. service- they hurriedly built runways gravesites, leading them
men lost in past conflicts and other infrastructure to to find partial remains that
has found what officials help U.S. forces push far- have been matched with
believe are the graves of ther west across the Pacific those already buried as
more than 30 Marines and toward Japan. “unknowns” in a national
sailors killed in one of the History Flight has recovered cemetery in Honolulu. The
bloodiest battles of World the remains of 68 individu- Defense POW/MIA Ac-
War II. als and more than 200 sets counting Agency dug up
A team working on the re- of partial remains from these remains in 2017 to
mote Pacific atoll of Tar- Tarawa since 2015, when it make additional identifi-
awa found the graves in began excavating under a cations. The agency has
March, said Mark Noah, contract with the Defense identified more than 100
president of the nonprofit Department, the Defense people excavated from
History Flight. POW/MIA Accounting Tarawa and the Honolulu This June 1, 2019 photo provided by History Flight shows graves
The remains are believed Agency said. cemetery since 2015.q of U.S. servicemen under the water table in Tarawa, Kiribati.
to belong to Marines and The military is paying His- Associated Press
sailors from the 6th Marine tory Flight $4.1 million for
Regiment killed during the the current contract lasting
last night of the three-day from February 2018 through
Battle of Tarawa. July.
The Defense POW/MIA Ac- Tarawa is now part of the
counting Agency expects Republic of Kiribati. Its gov-
to pick up the remains and ernment allowed History
fly them to Hawaii next Flight to demolish an aban-
month, said Dr. John Byrd, doned building in its latest
director of agency’s labo- search. Many of the graves
ratories. Military forensic were underneath it.
anthropologists will then A large number of graves
work to identify them using also are below the wa-
dental records, DNA and ter table, meaning History
other clues. Flight workers must pump
More than 990 U.S. Marines water from the site each
and 30 U.S. sailors were day to excavate.
killed in the 1943 Battle Byrd said the Army Graves
of Tarawa, after the U.S. Registration Service exca-
launched an amphibious vated some of Tarawa’s
assault on the small island temporary cemeteries in
about 2,300 miles (3,700 ki- the late 1940s but left be-
lometers) southwest of Ho-
nolulu.
Marines and sailors quickly
encountered Japanese
machine-gun fire when
their boats got stuck on the
reef at low tide. Americans
who made it to the beach
faced brutal hand-to-hand
combat.
The U.S. military buried its
men in makeshift cem-