Name | 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr. |
Branch: | USMCR |
Unit: | F Company 2nd Marine Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment |
Location of Recovery: | Betio, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands (Modern Day Kiribati) Cemetery 27 |
Date of Loss: | November 22, 1943 |
Status: | ACCOUNTED FOR |
Circumstances: Lt. Bonnyman was with the USMC invasion forces on Betio, Tarawa, killed in action on the 3rd day of the battle. Listed as Missing In Action until 2015, when History Flight teams located the long lost cemetery 27. The men were repatriated by the Department of Defense in July 2015, and Lt. Bonnyman was laid to rest in Knoxville, Tennessee in September 2015, only a few short months after he was returned to U.S. soil. Without History Flight’s research and multi-faceted technical approach to searching for the missing men on Tarawa, Lt. Bonnyman and the other marines would not have been found. All of our family can now rest in peace that he is home.