World War II Honoree

Thomas Carl Bacon

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. On January 12, 1942, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Minnesota, receiving his Marine combat training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Served with Company-M ‘Heavy Weapons’ 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, a subordinate unit of the 2nd Marine ‘The Silent Second’ Division in the Western 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, lost at sea Saturday, November 20, 1943 on the first day of the invasion. 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.