BOURNE, Mass. — The remains of a U.S. Serviceman from Somerville killed in World War II will be returned for burial, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
The organization announced Friday the remains of Marine Pfc. John Mac Donald, 19, were accounted for on Aug. 15, 2016 and will be returned for burial in Bourne, Massachusetts on June 22.
Mac Donald was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division in November 1943 when his company landed in the Gilbert Islands. About 1,000 sailors and Marines were killed in the offensive against the islands and the organization says Mac Donald died on the first day of battle Nov. 20, 1943.
The Battle of the Tarawa Atoll was ‘a huge victory for the U.S. Military,’ the organization said in its release. Servicemen who died during the battle were buried in battlefield cemeteries on the island, but Mac Donald’s remains were not initially recovered in 1946 and 1947 during the initial efforts. His remains were deemed non-recoverable by a military review board in 1949.
But the POW/MIA Accounting Agency says History Flight, Inc. – a non-governmental organization – discovered the burial site in June 2015 and recovered Mac Donald’s remains, along with the remains of 34 other U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in Nov. 1943.
“To identify Mac Donald’s remains, scientists from DPAA used laboratory analysis, including anthropological analysis and dental and chest radiograph comparison analysis, which matched Mac Donald’s records; as well as circumstantial and material evidence,” the release states.
The organization estimates there are nearly 73,000 soldiers still unaccounted from World War II.
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