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BOSTON (AP) — A U.S. Marine from Massachusetts who died during the World War II Battle of Tarawa in November 1943 is coming home.
The remains of Pfc. John W. Mac Donald, of Somerville, are scheduled to be buried with full military honors June 22 at the Massachusetts veterans' cemetery in Bourne.
Mac Donald was 19 when he was killed on the first day of fighting on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll in the Central Pacific.
He received a field burial, and although post-war efforts were made to recover the remains of U.S. servicemen, Mac Donald was among those a military review board in 1949 declared unrecoverable.
That changed in 2015 when a non-governmental organization discovered the burial site of 35 Marines on Betio Island.
Mac Donald's remains were identified in August 2016 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
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