Called Tarawa News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: about a year ago, peter was digging a hole with his son right next to his home. >> we dig the hole for making a garden. and while we digging the hole and we would find a bone. >> reporter: peter lives in tarawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles in marine corps history. peter said he was no doubt in his mind he'd found a u.s. marine. >> it is a very big american boy when we look at it. very long bone in the legs. like american calf. and he has a can hanging on the side. >> reporter: the world war ii battle of tarawa claimed more than 1,000 marines in just over 72 hours of f...

Government tried but couldn't find all of the u.s. bodies that had been buried on the island. now more than 65 years later, the u.s. military is back on tarawa looking for those lost marines. jpac is the military's unit responsible for identifying lost soldiers. for the past week, the jpac team has been digging and sifting areas where they think there may be remains which they were doing when peter showed up. >> he came over and basicallily hollered at us over the fence and got our attention. >> reporter: peter took marine captain todd and his team inside his tiny home and showed them what he ...

Months and months before the american team come and look for them. >> his respect he gave the remains was pretty incredible. honestly it gave me goosebumps. >> then peter gave them something else. >> the captain turned around and this guy handed him a projectile. >> i instantly said, you know, you don't need this in your house. >> the crew took the bomb away. >> the remains were bagged and labeled and will be analyzed for identification. peter says after taking care of the remains he feels connected to them and told us he would like to meet the soldier's family some day. >> they will be very h...

Projectile. >> i instantly said, you know, you don't need this in your house. >> the crew took the bomb away. >> the remains were bagged and labeled and will be analyzed for identification. peter says after taking care of the remains he feels connected to them and told us he would like to meet the soldier's family some day. >> they will be very happy and see the body of their boy or their father or their brother coming back home to america. >> reporter: the u.s. military is planning on spending more than a month here. they are digging on six separate sites. this is the second of those six. it'...

Also ahead, u.s. marines return to one of the bloodiest battlefields of world war ii. >> it's basically a promise by the united states government that they will do everything in their power to bring their fallen warriors home. and that's the way we roll. >> a tiny patch of sand in the middle of the pacific called tarawa. their goal to find u.s. marines who died there more than 65 years ago.