The remains of a Marine who was killed in action during America’s first conflict in the Pacific Theater of World War II have been identified as those of Pvt. Joseph C. Carbone of Brooklyn, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Carbone, who was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines and 2nd Marine Division, was killed during the first day of fighting in the Battle of Tarawa on Nov. 20, 1943.
The Battle of Tarawa took place on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, which is between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii and was the first U.S. attack in the Pacific during WWII.
About 6,400 Japanese, Korean and American soldiers were killed during the three-day conflict. The Pentagon said that 1,000 U.S. Marines were among the dead, and more than 2,000 were wounded.
According to Carbone’s page on TogetherWeServed.com, the unaccounted U.S. casualties in the Battle of Tarawa were buried in small cemeteries on the small atoll. After the war ended, graves registration teams “found an enormous mess and very few remains” as the graves were moved due to expansion of the military base on the island. As such, many remains had no identification or identifying features and were left behind.
Carbone’s name appears on Court 2 of the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, according to the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission. To show that he has now been accounted for, a rosette will be placed next to his name.
The Pentagon said that Carbone’s burial services are pending.
