James F. Mansfield, age 19, from Plymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth county.
Parents: Hilda Mansfield
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On May 6, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class James F. Mansfield, missing from World War II. Private First Class Mansfield, who entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Massachusetts, was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. On November 20, 1943, was killed in action on during the U.S. assault on the Japanese-controlled Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. PFC Mansfield was buried in a cemetery on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, but investigations of the area immediately after the war failed to locate or identify his remains. In 2015, the organization History Flight, Inc. uncovered a burial trench on Betio and recovered the remains of several U.S. Marines who fought in the battle correlating to PFC Mansfield’s loss. These remains were turned over to DPAA analysts who used modern forensic techniques to identify PFC Mansfield from among them.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
