World War II Honoree

Carroll F. Walker

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Des Moines, Iowa

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Sergeant. On September 24, 1940, he was inducted into the United States Marine Corps from Iowa. His boot camp training took place with the Fourth Recruit Battalion, Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. Served as a Squad Leader with the Second Marine Division in the Central Pacific Theater of Operations, assigned to Delta Company, First Battalion and Second Marine Regiment. 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. He died of wounds that he had encountered on the battlefield, and buried at sea Sunday, November 21, 1943. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed by his family at the Chapel Hill Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.