Adair County Oklahoma

Alfred Edwards, age 33, from Stilwell, Oklahoma, Adair county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On August 27, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Alfred Edwards, missing from World War II. Private First Class Edwards entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Oklahoma and served with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division. PFC Edwards was killed in action on November 20, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa. He was reportedly buried on Tarawa Atoll in Grave 17, Row C, of East Division Cemetery (later renamed Cemetery 33). Following the war, his remains were not identified from among those recovered from military cemeteries on the atoll and returned to the U.S. They were instead declared unknown remains and then interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii. In 2016, DPAA disinterred the remains of 94 sets of unknown remains associated with Tarawa for reexamination. Based on the circumstances of PFC Edward’s burial location on Tarawa and applied modern forensic techniques, DPAA analysts eventually identified PFD Edwards from among these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency