World War II Honoree

Charles Arvan Drew

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

San Diego, California

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. On September 11, 1942, he was inducted into the United States Marine Corps from California. His boot camp training took place with Eleventh Recruit Battalion, Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, California. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, California. Served in Company-F as a Rifleman, 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. 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 Marine were interred with Military Honors, June 18, 2018 at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.