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HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM/Gray News) – Eighty years after his death in World War II, a Mississippi sergeant is finally buried.
Sergeant Harold Hammett left Hattiesburg in 1940 for San Francisco.
Hammett later joined the Marines and was one of the thousands of soldiers sent to the South Pacific during World War II.
By 1943, when U.S. troops landed on Betio Island, Hammett was a member of the 2nd Marine Division, according to Roger White, Hammett’s cousin.
“They were trying to jump over the islands and get closer to Tokyo because they thought the Japanese wouldn’t give up and it would be a ground invasion,” White said.
The ensuing battle, later known as the Battle of Tarawa, claimed thousands of lives. Hammett, then 24 years old, was first killed on November 20, 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Dwayne Williams, another of Hammett’s cousins, said the Hattiesburg family was notified a month later.
“They heard the news around Christmas Eve, so it wasn’t a very good Christmas,” Williams said.
Hammett’s remains were declared unrecoverable until they were discovered and buried at Hawaii’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the “Punchbowl.”
In 2018, White and her family were urged to submit DNA to confirm her relationship to Hammett.
The family was informed about the match at the end of 2023. They were amazed at what they saw.
“The body was basically 85% intact,” White said. “We looked at what the body looked like and the entire left shoulder and left arm was missing.”
Mr Williams said the family’s celebration of life was inappropriate for a man who left behind an unforgettable legacy.
“My grandfather always wanted me to be buried next to him, right next to him, and there was a conspiracy between him and my grandmother,” Williams said. “That’s where he will be buried.”
Hammett was buried at Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg.
Copyright 2024 WDAM via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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