Marine Corps PFC John Herman Osmers, 21, killed in World War II, remains unaccounted-for.
Private First Class Osmers was with his brothers in Lima Company, 3rd Battaltion of the 2nd Marines (L-3/2) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.
It was November 20th (D-Day for the "Battle of Tarawa"), when young John - just 21 years old - perished. He remains unaccounted-for.
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. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio, but John’s remains were not recovered. On February 8, 1949, a military review board declared him “non-recoverable”.
Marine PFC John H. Osmers' name is permanently inscribed with Court 4 of the "Courts of the Missing" of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial (55926958, a cenotaph).
SOURCE
Marine Corps POW/MIA Section
American Battle Monuments Commission
Jennifer Morrison, independent volunteer forensic genealogist
Private First Class Osmers was with his brothers in Lima Company, 3rd Battaltion of the 2nd Marines (L-3/2) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.
It was November 20th (D-Day for the "Battle of Tarawa"), when young John - just 21 years old - perished. He remains unaccounted-for.
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. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio, but John’s remains were not recovered. On February 8, 1949, a military review board declared him “non-recoverable”.
Marine PFC John H. Osmers' name is permanently inscribed with Court 4 of the "Courts of the Missing" of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial (55926958, a cenotaph).
SOURCE
Marine Corps POW/MIA Section
American Battle Monuments Commission
Jennifer Morrison, independent volunteer forensic genealogist
Marine Corps PFC John Herman Osmers, 21, killed in World War II, remains unaccounted-for.
Private First Class Osmers was with his brothers in Lima Company, 3rd Battaltion of the 2nd Marines (L-3/2) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.
It was November 20th (D-Day for the "Battle of Tarawa"), when young John - just 21 years old - perished. He remains unaccounted-for.
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. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio, but John’s remains were not recovered. On February 8, 1949, a military review board declared him “non-recoverable”.
Marine PFC John H. Osmers' name is permanently inscribed with Court 4 of the "Courts of the Missing" of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial (55926958, a cenotaph).
SOURCE
Marine Corps POW/MIA Section
American Battle Monuments Commission
Jennifer Morrison, independent volunteer forensic genealogist
Private First Class Osmers was with his brothers in Lima Company, 3rd Battaltion of the 2nd Marines (L-3/2) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.
It was November 20th (D-Day for the "Battle of Tarawa"), when young John - just 21 years old - perished. He remains unaccounted-for.
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. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio, but John’s remains were not recovered. On February 8, 1949, a military review board declared him “non-recoverable”.
Marine PFC John H. Osmers' name is permanently inscribed with Court 4 of the "Courts of the Missing" of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial (55926958, a cenotaph).
SOURCE
Marine Corps POW/MIA Section
American Battle Monuments Commission
Jennifer Morrison, independent volunteer forensic genealogist
Inscription
IN MEMORY OF / JOHN H OSMERS
MONTANA / PFC US MARINE CORPS / WORLD WAR II PH
JUNE 10 1922 ... NOV 20 1943
Gravesite Details
Memorial marker (cenotaph). John is still unaccounted-for.
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