Barker, Raymond A.
Marine Reserves Corporal

Raymond A. Barker, age 22, from Evanston, Illinois, Cook county.

Parents: Harley C. Barker

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On September 27, 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Raymond Arthur Barker, missing from World War II. Corporal Barker, who joined the United States Marine Corps from Illinois, was a member of the 3rd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd 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, he was not identified among remains exhumed from Betio and repatriated to the United States. In 2017, the independent investigative group History Flight, in partnership with DPAA, located a burial trench on Betio and recovered human remains. DPAA analysts identified Cpl Barker from among these remains.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial

Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency