World War II Honoree

Walter Tobe Percer

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Boswell, Oklahoma

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Corporal. On December 14, 1941, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Oklahoma, receiving his Boot Camp Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. He completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton. Served with Company-D as a Rifleman, Second Battalion, Second Marine Regiment, a subordinate unit of the Second ‘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, 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. Experienced combat in a previous operation: Guadalcanal Campaign Solomon Island. He received the following Decorations and Citations: Silver Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Presidential Unit Citation with one Bronze Star, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars and the WWII Victory Medal. The Silver Star, awarded posthumously for Distinguished Gallantry in Action and Valor in Combat against an enemy force on Guadalcanal. The Purple Heart was also awarded posthumously, as he so gallantly gave his life for his country.