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Ceremony honors WWII Medal of Honor recipient before his remains head home
Stars and Stripes
September 25, 2015
1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr. (U.S. Navy)
HONOLULU — U.S. Marines conducted a brief departure ceremony Thursday in Honolulu over a casket holding the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, a Marine killed Nov. 22, 1943, in the Battle of Tarawa during World War II.
Bonnyman’s remains, which were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Honolulu, are being sent to Knoxville, Tenn., for burial. He was one of 36 Marines recovered earlier this year from Tarawa’s Betio Island in the Pacific Ocean.
Bonnyman, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1947, enlisted as a private in the Marines in July 1942 and was promoted to first lieutenant the following year after fighting in Guadalcanal, according to Marine Corps documents. He died three days after landing on Betio while leading an assault on a fortified cave manned by Japanese soldiers.
1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr. (U.S. Navy)
U.S. Marines conduct a brief departure ceremony over a casket holding the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, in Honolulu. Bonnyman, who was given the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1947, was killed in the Battle of Tarawa during World War II. His remains were among 36 recovered and identified earlier this year. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)