World War II Honoree

Anthony G. Guerriero

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Boston, Massachusetts

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Corporal. On January 23, 1940, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Massachusetts, receiving his Boot Camp Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. Served in Company-B as a Rifleman, First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, 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 Sunday, November 21, 1943 on the second day of the invasion and buried in a temporary battlefield cemetery. At the conclusion of the Battle, the remains were moved to the Lone Palm cemetery. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, Quartermaster Corps conducted recovery operations from the Lone Palm Cemetery. The remains were transferred to a laboratory at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for identification, and the unidentifiable were laid to rest as unknowns in Punchbowl. In October of 2016, the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency disinterred the Tarawa Unknowns from Punchbowl and sent the remains to their laboratory for analysis, where he was identified on July 14, 2017. The remains of this Marine were interred with Military Honors at the Arlington National Cemetery November 14, 2017 in Arlington in Virginia. This Marine, an American Patriot awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.