Quinn, David Harvey
Marines Reserves 1st sergeant

David Harvey Quinn, age 24, from Temple, New Hampshire, Hillsborough county.

Parents: Kitty E. Quinn

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On November 7, 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of First Sergeant David Harvey Quinn, missing from World War II. First Sergeant Quinn, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Massachusetts, was a member of Company C, Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion, Second Marine Division. On November 20, 1943, he was killed during the amphibious assault on Betio Island, as part of the Battle of Tarawa. He was buried in a Marine cemetery on Betio. After the war, 1stSgt Quinn’s remains were exhumed from Betio and returned to the United States, but they could not be identified at the time and were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2016, DPAA analysts exhumed 1stSgt Quinn’s remains from the NMCP, and, using modern forensic techniques, successfully identified them.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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