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.

Sunday, June 27, 2021

U.S. Marine Killed on Tarawa Comes Home: Sgt. Donald Deloy Stoddard

 From the June 23, 2021 Daily Camera "'Home to rest': World War II veteran receives ceremonial homecoming 78 years later" by Dana Cadey.

The remains of Sgt. Donald Deloy Stoddard were motorcaded from Denver to Boulder, Colorado, on Wednesday, June 23.

He was a member of  Company B, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Division and killed in action  on November 22, 1944, during the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific Ocean.  His death came as the result of an artillery explosion during a Japanese  banzai charge.  He was 22 years old.

There were so many American casualties on the island of Betio that many were buried in mass graves.  His body was located in March 2019, but not identified  until a year later.  

Burial will be Saturday, June 26, at Mountain View Memorial  Park, next to his parents.

--GreGen


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