Marine Corps Reserve Pvt Emil F Ragucci
Marine Corps Reserve Pvt. Emil F. Ragucci, 19, of Philadelphia, accounted for on Nov. 13, 2017, will be buried August 14, in his hometown. In November 1943, Ragucci was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 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, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Ragucci died on the first day of the battle, Nov. 20, 1943.
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 the 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 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio Island, but Ragucci’s remains were not recovered. On Oct. 24, 1949, a military review board declared Ragucci’s remains non-recoverable.
In September 2013, through a partnership with History Flight, Inc., JPAC (a predecessor to DPAA) received the remains of a group that had been located in the known area of Cemetery 33. The remains were sent to the Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu for analysis.
To identify Ragucci’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-STR) DNA analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
DPAA is grateful to History Flight, Inc., for their partnership in this mission.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,906 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Ragucci’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others killed or lost in WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
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 the 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 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio Island, but Ragucci’s remains were not recovered. On Oct. 24, 1949, a military review board declared Ragucci’s remains non-recoverable.
In September 2013, through a partnership with History Flight, Inc., JPAC (a predecessor to DPAA) received the remains of a group that had been located in the known area of Cemetery 33. The remains were sent to the Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu for analysis.
To identify Ragucci’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-STR) DNA analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
DPAA is grateful to History Flight, Inc., for their partnership in this mission.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,906 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Ragucci’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others killed or lost in WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.