World War II Honoree

Edward Augustine Nalazek

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Chicago, Illinois

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps March 12, 1942 at Chicago, Illinois, with recruit training assigned to the Fifth Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from Boot Camp, he was transferred to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California for combat training. Served as a Rifleman with the Second Marine Division in the Central Pacific Theater of Operations, assigned to Dog Company, Second Battalion and Eighteenth Marine ‘Pioneers’ Engineers. 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 Sunday, November 21, 1943 on the second day of the invasion. In remembrance of the brave, 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 laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii where he was identified. The family of this Marine received his remains for burial. He was laid to rest with Military Honors, February 10, 2020 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.