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News Release

Press Release | Aug. 25, 2022

Marine Accounted For From World War II (Garrison, L.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Lawrence E. Garrison, 23, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Aug. 23, 2022.

In November 1943, Garrison was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, 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, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Garrison was killed on the first day of the battle, Nov. 20, 1943. His remains were reportedly buried in a “Division Cemetery,” but records are not clear as to which one.

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, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Garrison’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000ccbIEAQ.