
Jack Benson VanZandt, age 22, from Danville, Illinois, Vermilion county.
Parents: Blanche M. VanZandt
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, November 22, 1943
Death details: On September 23, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Jack Benson Van Zandt, missing from World War II. Private First Class Van Zandt entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Indiana and was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands in November 1943. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, PFC Van Zandt was killed on the third day of the battle, on November 22. His remains were reportedly buried in East Division Cemetery on Betio Island; however, they were not recovered following the war. In 2009, the non-governmental organization History Flight located a site on Betio that was later identified as Cemetery 33. In 2019, History Flight located another burial trench west of Cemetery 33, which was determined to be Row D of the East Division Cemetery. Remains recovered from this burial trench were turned over to the DPAA, and using circumstantial evidence and laboratory analysis, analysts identified PFC Van Zandt from among these remains.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency