Three Return from World War II
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From World War II
• Pfc John W. Mac Donald, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 1 September 2016.
• Sgt James L. Hubert, Company H, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 21 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 1 September 2016.
• Pfc Ben H. Gore, Special Warfare Group, 2nd Defense Battalion, Fleet Marine Force, USMC, was lost on 25 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 1 September 2016.
Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
You’re home now. Rest in peace.
. . .
Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.
On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.
Category: No Longer Missing
Welcome home, shipmates.
The DPAA PAO has credited the non-governmental organization History Flight with recovering all of these remains.
R.I.P., and welcome home.
More Tarawa Marines. History Flight has really made this happen. Shows how private groups can really step up if the government gets out of the way.
Welcome home, brothers. Rest in peace now.
Welcome Home soldiers…
Rest Well
See you on the other side
Salute
Welcome home, men.
Rest well.
Welcome home Marines. Rest in Peace.
I always try to learn more about each of the soldiers and sailors that are returned. Just a question for accuracy’s sake, it might be James J. (Joseph) Hubert vice James L. Hubert that is listed.
http://www.warmemorial.us/mediawiki3/index.php?title=JAMES_J._HUBERT_-_Saint_Louis,_MN_(SGT)_WWII
Although my research is far from comprehensive, it seems very coincidental to have two “Sgt James Hubert”s MIA on Tarawa. I haven’t found any James Huburt with an “L”.
HTH
Holden
I’ve got the message from DPAA and it says “L”, so whoever screwed it up, it wasn’t Hondo.
Completely understand. Oddly, the DPAA FB site has a J.
A newspaper clipping from 1944 has a the J as well.
http://historicperiodicals.princeton.edu/historic/cgi-bin/historic?a=d&d=MarineCorpsChevron19440122-01.2.68&e=——-en-20–1–txt-IN—–
Just trying to help here…
H
The Hubert family lived in Duluth Minnesota in a single-family home that still stands and is now a small daycare center. The patriarch, Wallace Hubert, was a WW I Veteran, according to the 1930 census, and he and his wife, Mary had two children,then eight-year-old James and four-year-old Elizabeth, who was called Betty. By the 1940 census, only Wallace, Mary, and Betty were in their house on Wellington Street. James had enlisted in the Marine Corps in January of that year. He Fell during the incredibly vicious fighting at Tarawa. He was 21.
Ben H. Gore was a farm boy from Hopkinsville, KY. According to the 1940 census, his grandfather owned a farm on Huffman Mill Road where Ben, his parents, George and Ruth, lived and worked. Ben had four brothers and was the eldest son. He had one older sister, Grace. Ben joined the USMC at 19, on 11 January 1943, and Fell at Tarawa 10 months later. He was born on 6 March, 1923.
Right off of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, between Gorham Street and Harvard Avenue is Royce Road. There’s a large apartment building at 11 Royce Road. It was built in 1930. It was likely here that notice of John W. MacDonald’s being MIA/KIA was received by his mother, Dorothy.