World War II Honoree

Jack Marvin Redman

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Watseka, Illinois

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. On January 30, 1943, he entered the United States Marine Corps as an enlistee from Illinois, receiving his Boot Camp Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, California. Served in Headquarters and Service Company, Eighteenth Engineers Battalion, and a subordinate unit of the Second 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, Gilbert Islands; Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Killed in action Monday, November 23, 1943 on the third day of the invasion, and buried in a battlefield cemetery. In 2014 a local resident, who resided on the island discovered a burial grave, which contained some American military gear and other artifacts. A recovery team assigned to the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency investigated the findings and transferred the remains to their laboratory in Hawaii where he was identified May 8, 2015. The remains of this Marine were interred with Military Honors at the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, May 16, 2015 in Watseka, Illinois. This Marine, an American Patriot awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.