World War II Honoree
Killed in World War II
Robert W. Hillard
Branch of Service
U.S. Marine Corps
Hometown
Big Fork, Arkansas
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Private. On May 19, 1942, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Arkansas, receiving his Marine Combat Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Served with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, a subordinate unit of the 2nd Marine ‘The Silent Second’ Division in the Central Pacific Theater of Operations. His Division participated in the amphibious assault against the Imperial Japanese forces in the Battle of Tarawa, on the Island of Betio, located on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Reported missing in action Saturday, November 20, 1943 on the first day of the invasion, and in remembrance of the brave, his name is recorded in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial cemetery of the Pacific ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. This Marine, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.