Lost for Decades, a Marine World War II Hero Finally Comes Home
A plaque on a memorial site hangs to commemorate the Battle of Tarawa on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati, June 19, 2017. (MCIPAC Combat Camera Lance Cpl. Juan C. Bustos/U.S. Marine Corps)
19 Apr 2021 The Los Angeles Times | By Gustavo Arellano
LOS ANGELES The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943.
Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead.
A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would be buried in a temporary grave in the Tarawa Atoll, where he and more than 1,000 other Marines and sailors died fighting the Imperial Japanese Army.
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The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943.
Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead.
A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would be buried in a temporary grave in the Tarawa atoll, where he and more than 1,000 other Marines and sailors died fighting
the Imperial Japanese Army.
Weeks turned into months and
into years. The military finally admitted it couldn’t find Jacob’s burial place. His name was etched at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C.
On March 26, Papa Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion completed recruit training with four male platoons and two female platoons; the first time ever that male recruits have graduated from the battalion.
During training the platoons were segregated by gender and maintained separate sleeping and bathing facilities inside of their respective squadbays. Training events conducted outside of the squad bay were conducted in a gender integrated environment.
Per the training order, platoons, both male and female, are the primary formation for initial training, and they progressively combine for larger training events as the program continues. This model enables appropriate acclimation to the training environment, development of relationships with drill instructors, and focus during the transformation of young women and men into United States Marines.