Marine Killed In WWII To Be Buried In Elgin
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A U.S. Marine from Illinois who was killed during World War II will be buried on Thursday in Elgin.
Marine Corps Pfc. Roland Schaede was 19 when he was killed in the Battle of Tarawa in 1943 on the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific, according to the military.
Until two years ago, body was believed to have been non-recoverable on the Tarawa Atoll after the American invasion of the Gilbert Islands. Schaede's body was declared "non-recoverable" by the military in 1949.
A non-government group -- History Flight, Inc. -- discovered a burial site on Tarawa in June 2015. The site held the remains of 35 Marines killed in the Battle of Tarawa.
Schaede was positively identified among them. He was among approximately 1,000 U.S. Marines and sailors killed in the invasion, Operation Galvanic, which the military has said "virtually annihilated" Japanese forces there.
More than 73,000 U.S. service members still remain unaccounted for from World War II.