Boulder Marine Donald Stoddard Killed In WWII Finally Buried At Home
(CBS4) - DNA testing, dental and anthropological analysis, along with circumstantial and material evidence, were all used to identify the remains of Marine Corps Sgt. Donald D. Stoddard, 22, of Boulder, who was killed in World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Stoddard was accounted for on March 16, 2020.
"In November 1943, Stoddard was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated," officials stated.
Stoddard died on the third day of battle, Nov. 22, 1943. He was reported to have been buried in Row D of the East Division Cemetery, later renamed Cemetery 33.
In 1946, all of the American remains found on Tarawa at Lone Palm Cemetery were centralized for later repatriation. However, almost half of the known casualties were never found.
None of the recovered remains could be associated with Stoddard, and, in October 1949, a Board of Review declared him "non-recoverable."
In 2009, History Flight, Inc., a nonprofit organization, discovered a burial site on Betio Island believed to be Cemetery 33. It has been the site of numerous excavations ever since, and in March 2019, excavations west of Cemetery 33 revealed a previously undiscovered burial site -- identified as Row D.
The remains recovered at this site were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
"To identify Stoddard's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtSTR) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis," officials stated.
Stoddard was buried on Saturday, June 26, in Boulder.
Stoddard's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
