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Press Release | Sept. 24, 2024

Sailor Accounted for from WWII (Rix, G.)

Washington  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Navy Pharmacist’s Mate Third Class (PhM3c) Gilmore V. Rix, killed during World War II, was accounted for on June 18, 2024.

In November 1943, Rix was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, 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. Rix is believed to have been killed while his unit attempted to secure Red Beach 3 on Nov. 20, 1943. His remains were not identified after the war.

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.