WASHINGTON (WMBD) — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that Marine Corps Cpl. Raymond J. Tuhey, 24, of Chicago, Illinois was accounted for on April 20, 2020 after being killed in World War II.
According to the DPAA press release, Tuhey was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. He died on November 23, 1943, over several days of intense fighting on a small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Island.
In 1946, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company centralized all of the American remains found on Tarawa at Lone Palm Cemetery for later repatriation. However, almost half of the known casualties were never found. No recovered remains could be associated with Tuhey, 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, which has been the site of numerous excavations ever since.
Scientists from DPAA identified Tuhey by using dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
Tuhey will be buried on June 5, 2023, at Arlington National Cemetery. For family and funeral information, contact the Marine Corps Casualty Office at (800) 847-1597.
His personnel profile can be viewed here.
