- Accounted For

04/29/1982

On April 29, 1982, the Central Identification Lab-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) accounted for Private Ernest Eugene Tucker, missing from World War II.

Private Tucker, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from North Carolina, served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. On November 20, 1943, he was killed during the amphibious assault on Betio Island, as part of the Battle of Tarawa. He was buried in a Marine cemetery on Betio, but his remains were not recovered after the war. In 1979, a construction company operating in Betio located human remains and in 1980, a CILHI investigative team excavated this site and recovered remains that were later identified as those of Private Tucker.

Private Tucker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.