https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184528217/arnold-junior-harrison

On March 2, 2018, Marine Corps PFC Arnold Junior Harrison, 19, killed during World War II, was finally laid to rest - in American soil - with full military honors.

Arnold was the only child of Arnold Guy Harrison and Matilda Rose LeVay. Shortly after he was born, Arnold moved with his parents and half-sister, Lucille, to California.

Arnold attended James A Garfield High School, where he was active in the Horse Back Riding Club, Service, Baseball, Achievement Club and "B" Football.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 15, 1942 and was placed in the 9th Recruit Battalion at the Recruit Depot at Marine Corps Base, San Diego. PVT Harrison completed Tank School at the Fleet Marine Force Training Center at Camp Elliott in San Diego and shortly after shipped out into the Pacific Theater to face the Japanese Imperial Forces.

Private First Class Harrison was with his brothers in Bravo Company, 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marines (B-1/2) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.

It was November 20th (D-Day for the "Battle of Tarawa"), when young Arnold - just 20 years old - perished.

Having a loved one away from home during the holidays is always trying; however, having a son off fighting in the war left the whole family on edge. The fact that this battle took place just before Thanksgiving meant that most of the families, who had unknowingly earned their Gold Star, would receive their heart-wrenching telegrams on Christmas Eve – some Christmas Day or even New Years Day.

For his service and sacrifice, Arnie's family accepted the Purple Heart and Presidential Unit Citation.

The battle of Tarawa was a huge victory for the U.S. military because the Gilbert Islands provided the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet a platform from which to launch assaults on the Marshall and Caroline Islands to advance their Central Pacific Campaign against Japan.

In the immediate aftermath of the fighting on Tarawa, U.S. service members who died in the battle were buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. In May 1946, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company of the American Graves Registration Services (AGRS) had recovered 532 sets of remains from burial sites across the Tarawa Atoll and interred them in Lone Palm Cemetery. The remains that could not be identified were designated as “Unknowns.”

In November 1946, the U.S. Army began disinterment to bring the remains to Oahu for identification at the Central Identification Laboratory. In 1947, remains designated Unknown X-206 were sent to the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for analysis. When the X-206 could not be identified, they were reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP, also known as "The Punchbowl") in Honolulu.

In 2014, Jennifer Morrison, an independent volunteer forensic genealogist, found the family of PFC Harrison and provided their contact information to the Marine Corps POW/MIA Section. This (re)established lines of communication with Arnold’s family regarding the ongoing recovery and repatriation efforts, and offered Dr Bill Boone the opportunity to provide a Family Reference DNA Sample, should it be necessary for Arnie's identification.

On January 30, 2017, the Department of Veterans Affairs disinterred Tarawa Unknown X-166 from the Punchbowl and submitted the remains for analysis.

To identify Harrison’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis, which matched his records, as well as circumstantial evidence.

Arnold Junior Harrison was finally returned to his family and, on March 2, 2018, laid to rest at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery with full military honors.

Marine Corps Private First Class Arnold Junior Harrison has been recovered and identified, but his name will remain permanently inscribed among Court 2 of the "Courts of the Missing" of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial (56110065, a cenotaph). A rosette has been placed next to his name to indicate Arnie is no longer missing

SOURCE

Marine Corps POW/MIA Section

Release No: 18-015 (Feb. 23, 2018)

DPAA: Recent News & Stories (20Oct2017)

American Battle Monuments Commission

Jennifer Morrison, independent volunteer forensic genealogist

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Note from the memorial maintainer:

I am grateful to Chuck Williams & Hattie Johnson (USMC POW/MIA Section), the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab, the DVA and the DPAA for their efforts in bringing my Marine home. “It takes a village!”

Arnold Harrison Junior