
Alberic Maurice Blanchette, age 19, from Caribou, Maine, Aroostook county.
Parents: Benjamin Blanchette
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On July 12, 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private Alberic Maurice Blancette, missing from World War II. Private Blanchette entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Maine and served in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He was killed in action on November 20, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa. His body could not be recovered at the time of his loss, and he was not identified among remains recovered from Tarawa immediately after the war. However, modern forensic techniques allowed for the identification of Private Blanchette among unidentified remains recovered from Betio that had been buried as unknowns in Hawaii. Private Blanchette is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Honolulu Memorial
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency