White, Glenn Franklin
Marines Private 1st class

Glenn Franklin White, age 19, from Emporia, Kansas, Lyon county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Monday, November 22, 1943
Death details: On June 7, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Glenn Franklin White, missing from World War II. Private First Class White joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Missouri and was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. This unit participated in the U.S. invasion of Tarawa, a Japanese-held atoll 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. The first wave of Marines landed on Betio, Tarawa’s main island, on November 20, 1943. The Japanese garrison was well entrenched, with hundreds of bunkers and gun positions behind formidable beach obstacles. Most Marine casualties were suffered during the initial landing, but even once ashore, the Marines faced three more days of intense fighting, repelling savage counterattacks, before the island was secured. PFC White was killed in action on November 22 and buried in Row D at a place called Cemetery 33. Immediately after the war, efforts to locate this cemetery were unsuccessful. In 2009, the non-profit organization History Flight located a site on Betio Island that was later identified as Cemetery 33. In March 2019, History Flight located Row D. Remains recovered from the site were turned over to the DPAA and accessioned to a laboratory for study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of PFC White.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency