George E. Trotter

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Marine Corps Platoon Sgt. George E. Trotter, 38, of Kansas City, Missouri, killed during World War II, was accounted for on April 16, 2019.

In November 1943, Trotter was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, which landed against still Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island.  Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated.  Trotter died on the first day of the battle, November 20, 1943.

Despite the heavy casualties suffered by U.S. forces, military success in the battle of Tarawa was a huge victory for the U.S. military because the Gilbert Islands provided the U.S. 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.  The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio between 1946 and 1947, but Trotter’s remains were not identified.  All of the remains found on Tarawa were sent to the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory for identification in 1947.  By 1949, the remains that had not been identified were interred as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, including one set, designated as Tarawa Unknown X-055.

On March 13, 2017, DPAA disinterred Tarawa Unknown X-055 from the NMCP for identification.

To identify Trotter’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis.  Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.   Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war.  Currently there are 72,698 service members still unaccounted for from World War II, of which approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable.  Trotter’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the NMCP, along with the others missing from World War II.  A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Arrival of Platoon Sergeant George Ernest Trotter remains will be on August 6th, 2019 and will be escorted back to Taos New Mexico and placed in state at DeVargas Funeral Home of Taos.

Platoon Sergeant George Ernest Trotter is survived by his great niece Mary Gould and husband Richard of Taos, their children Ashley O’Brian and her companion Cooper Blankenship, and children Jacob O’Brian and Erik O’Brian and wife Wendy; great nephew Henry Roy Liles and wife Barbara; along with numerous other great great nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

Public visitation will be on August 7th and 8th in the Chapel of DeVargas Funeral Home of Taos, memorial service will be held on Friday August 9th, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. also in the Chapel of DeVargas Funeral Home of Taos with burial to follow at 1:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe National Cemetery with full military honors.  The family of Platoon Sergeant George Ernest Trotter has entrusted their loved one to DeVargas Funeral Home of Taos. 575-300-5288 www.devargastaos.com