Pfc. Ben H. Gore, 20, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, will be buried Nov.14, in his hometown. In November 1943, Gore was assigned to Special Weapons Group, 2nd Defense Battalion, 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, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Gore was injured sometime during the four-day battle and died Nov. 25, 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. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio Island, but Gore’s remains were not recovered. On Feb. 28, 1949, a military review board declared Gore’s remains non-recoverable.

In June 2015, a nongovernmental organization, History Flight, Inc., notified DPAA that they discovered a burial site on Betio Island and recovered the remains of what they believed were 35 U.S. service members who fought during the battle in November 1943. The remains were turned over to DPAA in July 2015.

To identify Gore’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA analysis, which matched a niece; laboratory analysis, including dental and anthropological analysis, which matched Gore’s records, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.

DPAA is appreciative to History Flight, Inc. and their partnership for this recovery mission.