
Palmer S. Haraldson, age 31, from Lincoln, Nebraska, Lancaster county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, November 22, 1943
Death details: On April 25, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private Palmer S. Haraldson, missing from World War II. Private Haraldson, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from California, was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He was killed in action on November 22, 1943, during the assault on the Japanese-controlled Betio Island of Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, and his remains were not recovered at the time. In 2015, the non-governmental organization History Flight, in partnership with DPAA, excavated a burial site on Betio Island where they recovered and turned over remains of U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943, and advances in forensic techniques led to the identification of Private Haraldson from among these remains. Private Haraldson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency