Benson, Edwin Francis
Marines Private

Edwin Francis Benson, age 22, from Boston, Massachusetts, Suffolk county.

Parents: Mary M. Benson

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On June 24, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced it has accounted for Private Edwin Francis Benson, missing from World War II. Private Benson, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Massachusetts, served with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division. Private Benson was killed in action by an enemy gunshot wound to the head during his unit’s landing on Betio Island on November 20, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa. He was buried on Betio Island at the time, but could not be identified from among the remains disinterred from the island after the war. In 2009, the non-profit organization History Flight located a communal burial site on Betio Island that was later identified as Cemetery 33, which prompted an investigation of all unidentified losses associated with the Tarawa Atoll, including Private Benson. In 2016, DPAA proposed the disinterment of Tarawa unknowns buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii. In 2017, DPAA analysts were able to use modern forensic techniques to identify Private Benson from among these remains.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial

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