Branch of Service
U.S. Marine Corps
Hometown
Chadron, Nebraska
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Sergeant. On October 2, 1942, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Minnesota, receiving his Marine combat training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina. Served with Company-E as a Rifleman, 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 on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll in the Battle of Tarawa, 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. In June of 2015 the history flight, a private organization, discovered a collective burial grave on Betio Island. The remains were transferred to the defense prisoner of war/missing in action accounting agency in Hawaii where he was identified. The remains of this Marine were interred with Military Honors at the Beaver Valley Cemetery October 6, 2016 in Beaver Valley City, Nebraska. This Marine, an American Patriot awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.