World War II Honoree

Thomas Jesse Murphy

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Greencastle, Indiana

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Pharmacist’s Mate, Second Class. On April 16, 1942, he was inducted into the United States Navy from Indiana. His medical schooling was completed with Company-A, Field Medical Battalion at Camp Elliott, Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Served as a Combat Medic in Headquarters Company, Third Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, and 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. The combat engagement took place on the Island of Betio, located on the Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Reported missing in action, lost at sea Saturday, November 20, 1943 on the first 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 Navy Pharmacist’s were interred with Military Honors, May 28, 2018 at the Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.