From the Jan. 30, 2009, WKBL News, El Paso, .New Mexico.
The body of a teenage sailor, 19-year-old Moyses Alfonso Martinez, killed July 22, 1944, off the island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean, has at long last been identified.
The battleship USS Colorado was bombarding the island when a Japanese hidden battery opened fire on it, striking the ship 22 times with 7.7 shells, killing 42 and wounding another 198, one of the heaviest losses sustained by any US ship battling shore batteries during the war.
Martinez's body was one of several unidentified. Four days later, his family received news of his death and that he was probably buried at sea.
It was found that the 42 were buried on Saipan and later, his body and two other unidentified from the ship were moved to Fort mcKinley near Manila in the Philippines.
Raymond Emory identified Martinez's body last summer using dental records. It is believed that both his parents and all siblings are deceased so DNA confirmation is not to be done.
At Least His Grave Will Now Be Marked. The Greatest Generation. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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