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News & Stories
News | Nov. 29, 2017

Marine Killed During World War II Accounted For (Quinn, D.)

Marine Corps Reserve 1st Sgt. David H. Quinn, killed during World War II, has now been accounted for.

In November 1943, Quinn was assigned to Company C, 2nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion (C-2d Amp Tr Bn), 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. Quinn died on the second day of battle, Nov. 21, 1943.

In October 2016, Quinn was disinterred from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.

Interment services are pending; more information will be released 7-10 days prior to scheduled funeral services.

Quinn's name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Punchbowl along with the other MIAs from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For more information about DPAA, visit www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call 703-699-1420.



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Public Affairs Contact Information


Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency PAO
Washington, D.C.
2300 Defense Pentagon
Attn: Outreach and Communications
Washington, D.C. 20301-2300
Email: dpaa.ncr.oc.mbx.public-affairs@mail.mil