World War II Honoree

Robert Henry Wharton

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Joaquin, Texas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Gunnery Sergeant. On May 19, 1942, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Texas, receiving his Marine combat training at the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot in San Diego, California. Served as a Tank Commander, assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, 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, 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. His family has placed a Memorial Marker in his Memory at the Joaquin Cemetery in Joaquin, Texas. This Marine, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart Medal posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.