NORTH COAST, Calif. – The remains of a young Healdsburg man who died in a World War II battle in 1943 have been identified and are returning to his North Coast home.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that the remains of Marine Pfc. John Saini – unaccounted for since World War II – have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
The funeral is set for Saturday in Healdsburg, the agency said.
Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and First Lady Anne Gust Brown this week honored Saini. Gov. Brown ordered that flags be flown at half-staff over the State Capitol, and Saini's family is to receive a letter of condolence from the governor.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency reported that in November 1943 the 20-year-old Saini was assigned to Company H, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, which landed on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands in an attempt to secure the island.
Saini died sometime on the first day of battle on Nov. 20, 1943, the agency said.
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.
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 their 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 Saini's remains were not recovered. On Feb. 28, 1949, a military review board declared Marine Pfc. Saini’s remains nonrecoverable.
In June 2015, a nongovernmental organization, History Flight Inc., notified the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency that they discovered a burial site on Betio Island and recovered the remains of what they believed were 35 U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943. The remains were turned over to the agency in July 2015.
To identify Saini’s remains, scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA analysis, which matched a sister; laboratory analysis, including dental analysis and anthropological comparison, which matched Saini’s records; as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
On June 3, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that the remains had been identified.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war, the agency said.
REGIONAL: Remains of World War II soldier from Healdsburg returning home
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