The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (repeated at the Stars and Stripes) covered the repatriation of the remains of 36 US Marines from Tarawa’s Betio Island, where they fell in battle more than 70 years ago:

History Flight Inc., a Florida nonprofit that has searched Tarawa for more than five years, announced in June its discovery of a burial trench on Tarawa’s Betio Island, a sandy grave of at least 36 Marines killed Nov. 20-23, 1943…

The flag-draped caskets containing the remains of U.S. Marines killed at the Battle of Tarawa almost 72 years ago arrived at 4 p.m. at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam…

Interestingly, Tarawa’s Betio Island is the location of a memorial cross erected for the fallen there:

Memorials like these are the targets of critics who would like to see any vestige of religion stripped from the public square — even if they were erected decades ago to memorialize and honor Americans who fell in battle.

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