Donald Ross Tolson

He attended the Laredo public school for several years until his family moved to Bakersfield, California when he was a teenager. He graduated high school in Bakersfield then enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in San Diego, California on September 20, 1941. He served with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces, in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. On November 20, 1943, during the first day of the attack on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Tolson was killed in action. He was survived by his parents, a brother, Chester, and his maternal grandfather, James F. McKay. He was preceded in death by his older brother, Ferrell, his maternal grandmother, Magnetta (Rule) McKay, and his paternal grandparents.

At the time of his death, Tolson was buried with many from Company F at Tarawa. Recently, the Department of Defense, Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency, exhumed his remains and positively identified them on September 18, 2017 in their laboratory located in Hawaii. For his actions in service, PFC Tolson received the Purple Heart Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic­ Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, ribbons and awards for Combat Action, Presidential Unit Citation, and Marine Corps Good Conduct.

Tolson is memorialized in Court 4 of the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now that he has been recovered, a rosette will be placed beside his name.

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PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DONALD ROSS TOLSON'S CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS AND RECOVERY PROVIDED BY THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PRISONER OF WAR/MISSING IN ACTION ACCOUNTING AGENCY

Private First Class Donald Ross Tolson enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in San Diego, California on September 20, 1941. He served with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces, in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. He participated in the Second Marine Division's assault of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll from November 20-23, 1943. For the purposes of invasion of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll on November 20, 1943, Tolson and his landing team debarked the USS Heywood ship during low tide and loaded into amphibious landing rafts for the journey from the ship to Red Beach Three. Due to low tide that day, the rafts could not get to the beach. Some Marines tried to swim after disembarking and drowned.

Tolson's unit, Company F, had not been able to advance on the beach as well as Company E located to their far right. Company F experienced heavy machine gun fire at their landing location in the middle of Red Beach Three and were pinned down near the water's edge. By the time Company E retreated, Company F had incurred major casualties. At some point during Company F's fight on November 20, PFC Tolson was killed in action. For his actions in service, PFC Tolson received the Purple Heart Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, ribbons and awards for Combat Action, Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Good Conduct, and is memorialized in Court 4 of the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii.

Operation GALVANIC, the battle to obtain possession of Betio Island, was a successful amphibious attack against the atoll which had been occupied and heavily fortified by the Japanese. That success came at a great cost in American casualties; the 2nd Marine Division ultimately lost 973 men killed or missing. One hundred seven men of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment died during this battle, and until recent months, seventy were still missing or unresolved.

Survivors of this three-day battle returned to U.S. ports. Naval Seabees were sent to Tarawa to bury the fallen in more than 40 isolated graves and cemeteries. Tolson's casualty card indicated he was buried but did not provide information concerning the location.

Following the close of the war, the War Department designated the United States Army's Quartermaster Corps, more specifically, the American Graves Registration Service, responsible for the recovery and identification of all fallen servicemen in the Pacific Theater. In June 1946, this unit conducted investigations of several burial sites at Tarawa Atoll. Tolson's memorial cross was erected in Cemetery 33 on the island. After two days of excavating Cemetery 33, the team found only 129 remains of an expected 400. An additional team returned to Tarawa in 1947 and 1948 to disinter remains of U.S. Marines. At that time, none of the unknowns examined in this process could be associated with Tolson. On October 7, 1949, the team declared PFC Tolson's remains to be non-recoverable.

In September 2009, an investigation team traveled to Betio Island to assess the feasibility of excavating several sites on the island suspected to contain remains from the battle of Tarawa. Each year since this mission, recovery personnel have returned to Betio Island. Simultaneously, archeologists, anthropologists, and military analysts worked with the National Geospatial-lntelligence Agency and independent researchers to study battle images and maps in relationship to current-day satellite images of the island in the hopes of locating additional areas likely to yield remains of missing United States service members.

In April 2017, the Department of Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency informed Donald Tolson's family they learned remains were discovered when a Tarawa resident began construction of a carport at his home. It was discovered that the Naval Seabees had dug trenches in 1943, identified the deceased, placed the bodies in trenches, then a few yards away, created a memorial for the fallen which created Cemetery 33. On September 18, 2017, via scientific assessment, Private First Class Donald Ross Tolson's remains were positively identified in the Department of Defense’s laboratory in Hawaii.

The family of PFC Tolson is grateful to the Department of Defense's efforts to ensure his remains will be interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri where his immediate family mourned his loss and placed his headstone on a very sad day in 1944.

Arrangements under the direction of Mt Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home, Kansas City, MO.