Livermore, Joseph Robert
Marines Private

Joseph Robert Livermore, age 21, from Bakersfield., California, Kern county.

Parents: Dorothy Livermore

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Monday, November 22, 1943
Death details: On June 24, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of Private First Class Joseph Robert Livermore, missing from World War II. Private First Class Livermore entered the U.S. Marine Corps from California and served in Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. In late November 1943, PFC Livermore participated in the amphibious assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll, a part of Operation Galvanic. He was reportedly killed on November 22, and was buried in Divisional 33 cemetery on Tarawa. After the war, the 604th Graves Registration Company recovered hundreds of sets of remains from Betio Island but was unable to locate PFC Livermore. In 2009, the nongovernmental organization History Flight located a burial site on Betio Island that was later identified as Cemetery 33. History Flight and DPAA subsequently excavated the surrounding area and recovered human remains in 2019. These remains were brought to the DPAA Laboratory where analysts used modern forensic tools to individually identify PFC Livermore.

Source: National Archives, ussindianapolis.org, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency