Honoring Our Fallen:  CalVet honors members of the U.S. Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation. Efforts continue to bring home those who went missing in action, including 72,975 American service members unaccounted for from World War II, 7,716 from the Korean War and 1,602 from the Vietnam War.

Marine Corps Pfc. Donald R. Tolson, from Bakersfield, California, killed during World War II, has been accounted for and was buried Dec. 2 in Kansas City, Missouri.

In November 1943, Tolson was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine  Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island.

Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated.  Ball was wounded on the first day of battle, Nov. 20, 1943, and was identified for evacuation to the USS J. Franklin Bell for treatment.  Ball never made it to the ship and his status was adjusted from wounded in action to missing in action as of Nov. 21, 1943.

Despite the heavy casualties suffered by U.S. forces, military success in the battle of Tarawa was a huge victory for the U.S. military because the Gilbert Islands provided the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet a platform from which to launch assaults on the Marshall and Caroline Islands to advance their Central Pacific Campaign against Japan.

In the immediate aftermath of the fighting on Tarawa, U.S. service members who died in the battle were buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio between 1946 and 1947, but Tolson’s remains were not identified.

From February to July 2017, DPAA, through a partnership with History Flight, Inc., returned to Betio to conduct excavations of osseous remains through various advanced investigative techniques.  The remains were sent to DPAA for analysis.

To identify Tolson’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis, which matched his records; as well as circumstantial evidence.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war.  Currently there are 72,975 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II.  Tolson’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, along with the other MIAs from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420.