After being recovered on a remote Pacific island, the remains of 39 U.S. Marines killed in World War II are finally returning to the United States.
Stars and Stripes reported Sunday that the remains, including those of Medal of Honor recipient Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., were brought home to U.S. soil over the weekend, after which a repatriation ceremony was scheduled to take place at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Bonnyman and his fellow Marines were killed in the 1943 Battle of Tarawa. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously after witnesses credited Bonnyman with leading forces who fought back at the Japanese, saved U.S. Marines and eventually helped the United States secure the island of Betio.
Bonnyman "fearlessly expos[ed] himself to the merciless slash of hostile fire as he stormed the formidable bastion," according to his Medal of Honor citation.
Following the battle, the military issued a letter explaining that most forces killed at Tarawa were lost at sea, but a team of researchers led by Bonnyman’s grandson successfully recovered the remains at the end of May this year. It had been more than 70 years since the Marines lost their lives in battle.
According to the military, the single troop recovery is the largest of its kind in history.