A Louisiana World War II Marine was finally brought home and laid to rest 81 years after being killed in action during one of the campaigns of the Pacific Theater.
U.S. Marine Corps PFC Harry LeBert was killed in action on June 16, 1944, at just 24 years old. He was buried this month at the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery.
“Today, we laid to rest one of our nation’s heroes, who at the age of 24, left behind his family to defend the freedoms that we hold dear today,” said Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Charlton Meginley. “It gives me great pride in knowing that at our Southwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery, PFC LeBert will be cared for in perpetuity, which is a small token of the appreciation and honor that he is due.”
LeBert, from Jennings, La., served in some of the most harrowing battles of the Pacific Campaign during WWII.
His journey as a U.S. Marine began in the brutal assault on Tarawa, part of the Gilbert Islands, where American forces launched one of the first major assaults against entrenched Japanese positions.
During the landing at Tarawa, a miscalculation of the tide forced LeBert and his fellow Marines to disembark their Higgins boat nearly 800 yards from the shore.
Under heavy enemy fire, they had to wade through chest-deep water to get to the beach, which has been described as feeling like “dried beans,” with little cover.
Before LeBert could make it ashore, he was wounded by shrapnel and evacuated for treatment.
After recovering from his injuries, LeBert returned to his unit for the Battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
He was then mortally wounded by a mortar barrage on the second day of an amphibious assault during the fierce Battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, a strategic base that the U.S. secured after a brutal three-week battle.
He was temporarily buried in a trench grave alongside his fallen comrades until his remains could be recovered. He was also later memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii, which is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.
In the 1950s, LeBert’s remains were identified only as “X-21” and relocated to the Philippines for safekeeping.
For decades, his identity remained unknown until recent advances in forensic science and a determined effort by military and family historians brought his story back to light.
In 2022, his remains were transferred to Hawaii, where experts at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency were able to extract DNA and match it with surviving relatives. Remarkably, 95 percent of his skeletal remains were intact, and his dental records further confirmed his identity.
LeBert holds multiple medals of honor, including a Purple Heart.
Since the renewal of U.S. POW/MIA recovery efforts in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans killed in World War II have been identified and returned to their families for burial, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
But there are still nearly 72,000 American soldiers missing in action from World War II out of the more than 16 million that served.