Alphonse Dumais
Master Gunnery Sergeant Alphonse “Duke” Dumais served with served with the Second Tank Battalion, Company C (Medium).
He was reported missing in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 20 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 177214
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
July 4, 1898
at Kamourasaka, Quebec
as Joseph Philippe Alphonse DUMAIS
Parents
Alphonse Dumais (d. 1898)
Marie Elise (Dionne) Dumais
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Career Marine
Service Life
Entered Service
September 15, 1921
at Detroit, MI
Home Of Record
25 Belknap Street
Dover, NH
Next Of Kin
Brother, Mr. Armand Dumais
Military Specialty
Gunnery Sergeant
Primary Unit
2nd Tank Battalion
Company C (Medium)
Campaigns Served
Guadalcanal (with 1st Tank Battalion)
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
Dumais served with the 2nd Depot Battalion, 2nd Quebec Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I.
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Master Gunnery Sergeant Alphonse “Duke” Dumais, a CEF veteran of the Great War and longtime Marine, served as the senior non-commissioned officer of Company C (Medium), 2nd Tank Battalion, during the Tarawa campaign.
As part of the company’s support echelon, Gunny Dumais was supposed to land on Betio with a later wave – but in the chaos off Red Beach One, his group disembarked with waves of assault infantry. Veteran Ed Gazel, who was aboard the same LCVP, recalled “Gunnery Sergeant Dumais, an old Frenchman and an old China Marine. He was riding with us, but he got shot, too. There was about forty in the boat but I think only about ten made the beach.”
Dumais was initially reported as missing following the battle; in January 1944, his status was changed to killed in action as of 20 November 1943.
Burial Information or Disposition
None reported; identifiable remains not recovered. A memorial marker was erected in Cemetery 33, Plot 5, Row 1, Grave 15.
Dumais’ company commander, Ed Bale, told author Oscar E. Gilbert that he was “confident that Dumais’ partial remains were located,” but because only the lower half was found, the remains could not be positively identified.
For more about Alphonse Dumais and Company C, see “Tanks In Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa” by Oscar Gilbert and Romain Canisere.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of brother, Mr. Armand Dumais.
Location Of Loss
Don’t change the map overlay, but say where the unit landed.
Note: Alphonse Dumais married Aurore Marie Pelletier on 13 July 1916 and had one known daughter, Marie Evelyn Alice Dumais (1917-1997).
They were divorced or otherwise estranged prior to his application for naturalization (1937).
