World War II Honoree

Harvel Lee Moore

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Chatham, Louisiana

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Second Lieutenant. On July 17, 1940, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Louisiana, receiving his Boot Camp Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, California. Served as a platoon leader in Company-E, Second 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 in the Gilbert Islands, Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Reported missing in action, lost at sea Monday, November 22, 1943 on the third day of the invasion. His name is permanently inscribed 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, May 26, 2018 at the Chatham Cemetery in Chatham, Louisiana. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.