By GUSTAVO ARELLANO | Los Angeles Times | Published: April 19, 2021 LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) – The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943. Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead. A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would be buried in a temporary grave in the Tarawa atoll, where he and more than 1,000 other Marines and sailors died fighting the Imperial Japanese Army. Weeks turned into months and into years. The military finally admitted it couldn t find Jacob s burial place. His name was etched at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
Lost for Decades, a Marine World War II Hero Finally Comes Home
A plaque on a memorial site hangs to commemorate the Battle of Tarawa on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati, June 19, 2017. (MCIPAC Combat Camera Lance Cpl. Juan C. Bustos/U.S. Marine Corps)
19 Apr 2021 The Los Angeles Times | By Gustavo Arellano
LOS ANGELES The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943.
Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead.
A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would be buried in a temporary grave in the Tarawa Atoll, where he and more than 1,000 other Marines and sailors died fighting the Imperial Japanese Army.
Print
The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943.
Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead.
A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would be buried in a temporary grave in the Tarawa atoll, where he and more than 1,000 other Marines and sailors died fighting
the Imperial Japanese Army.
Weeks turned into months and
into years. The military finally admitted it couldn’t find Jacob’s burial place. His name was etched at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.