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PHOTOS: American WWII heroes forgotten in Pacific graves
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Brisbane / Landry Family
Navy Sailor Howard Brisbane, killed in action Nov. 20, 1943. Photo: United States Navy.
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Brisbane / Landry Family
Remains of Howard Brisbane, excavated in a Pacific grave.
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WUSA9
Shipwrecks on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa. Brisbane was killed in action during the Battle of Tarawa, November 20, 1943.
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WUSA9
Tarawa excavation site in 2017. 452 U.S. troops are still missing on Tarawa today.
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Katie Rasdorf
Howard Brisbane's remains return to BWI Airport, June 2017.
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Clay Bonnyman Evans / History Flight, Inc.
Tarawa remains of Marine 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., found near Howard Brisbane.
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WUSA9
After he was buried on Tarawa in 1943, Howard Brisbane was recovered and re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery, June 9, 2017.
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WUSA9
Wing of an American B-24 bomber at low tide.
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WUSA9
Wreckage of Japanese artillery from World War II.
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WUSA9
Non-profit charity History Flight excavates U.S. Marines.
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WUSA9
Chickens and debris near American WWII burial site.
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WUSA9
Photos of Americans missing in action on Tarawa. Helmets and supplies from WWII line the table.
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WUSA9
Tarp covering American burial trench, excavated 73 years after Battle of Tarawa.
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WUSA9
Tarawa resident works to excavate U.S. Marine.
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WUSA9
Barrels and debris near graves of U.S. service members on Tarawa.
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WUSA9
Trash and debris near graves of U.S. troops on Tarawa.
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WUSA9
Pig pen and shantytown feet from where U.S. service members are buried.
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WUSA9
Tarawa excavation in June 2017. Team prepares to unearth a U.S. Marine.
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WUSA9
Tarawa excavation in June 2017. Anthropologist with the non-profit charity, History Flight, found +100 U.S. service members on the island.
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History Flight, Inc.
Aerial photographs from 1944 show Tarawa cemetery cleared to expand airfield infrastructure. Ground penetrating radar (left) indicates human remains underground. Green markers (right) indicate bodies found.
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U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation
Red circle indicates where Brisbane was buried, an area Americans paved over by this March 1944 photograph. Yellow circles indicate marked burial plots.
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WUSA9
Brisbane's gravesite today. It was turned into a parking lot by Americans days after his death.
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National Archives
Tarawa Cemetery where Howard Brisbane's family thought he was buried. Area of his grave marker circled in red.
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Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections
Victory after Battle of Tarawa.
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Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections
During the Battle of Tarawa, 961 Americans were killed over three days.
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Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections
American boats approach Tarawa.
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Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections
The Battle of Tarawa, November 20, 1943.
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Google Earth
Location of Tarawa in the Pacific Ocean, 7,000 miles from Washington, D.C.
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Clay Bonnyman Evans / History Flight, Inc.
Skull of Marine 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr.
30/37
National Archives
A cross and plaque on Tarawa memorializing the dead. Neither the cross nor plaque exists today.
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Department of the Navy, Naval Photographic Center
A cemetery on the beaches of Tarawa, no longer in existence today.
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National Archives
Bronze plaque that once memorialized Howard Brisbane (right, second from above) on Tarawa. The plaque has been lost to history.
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Arlington National Cemetery
Navy Sailor Howard Brisbane's grave today.
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United States Department of Defense / Brisbane Family
Photo and diagram of Howard Brisbane's skeleton recovered from the sands of Tarawa.
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United States Department of Defense / Brisbane Family
Japanese snipers killed scores of Americans on Tarawa in November 1943. Navy Sailor Howard Brisbane's skull, with fatal bullet wound.
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United States Department of Defense / Brisbane Family
Pieces of a gas mask found with Howard Brisbane's skeleton on Tarawa.
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United States Department of Defense / Brisbane Family
Defense Department memo from 1949 declaring Howard Brisbane's remains were non-recoverable. An American non-profit found Brisbane's remains on Tarawa in 2015.
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Brisbane / Landry Family
Navy Sailor Howard Brisbane, killed in action Nov. 20, 1943. Photo: United States Navy.
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