Frank Leroy Athon, Jr.

Frank Athon was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 12 June 1914. He grew up in the city with his parents (Ida and Frank Sr.) and siblings Helen, Katherine, Mary, Joseph, and Everett. The younger Frank – also known as “Frankie” or “Bud” – attended school through the eighth grade, then went to work in one of the processing factories that earned Cincinnati the nickname “Porkopolis.”

By 1940, Frank was married and living on Findlay Street in Cincinnati’s West End. The home where he and Marcella (Ballard) Athon lived was just a few doors down from his parents, and a short walk to his job at the Butcher’s Hide Association tannery on Poplar Street.

Frank enlisted in the Marine Corps on 27 October 1942 from a recruiting station in Cincinnati. He was 28 years old at the time.

After enlisting, Frank was sent to Parris Island for boot camp, then assigned to the 5th Replacement Draft. He deployed overseas with this unit, and joined Company A, First Battalion, 6th Marines in the spring of 1943.

While training with the 6th Marines in New Zealand, Frank advanced in rank to Private First Class.

PFC Frank Athon was killed in action less than twenty four hours into his first combat experience. His company landed on Betio in the Tarawa atoll on the night of 21 November 1943, and spent the following day attacking in sweltering heat. That night, they helped fend off a Japanese counterattack that left the field covered with dead combatants.

At some point during the fighting, PFC Athon was hit in the head and chest by shrapnel from an exploding shell. His body was found in the field the next day, and buried in a mass grave near where he fell.

News of his death was delivered to his parents and to his wife, Marcella, who was then living at 504 Purcell Avenue in Cincinnati. The news was received just before Christmas, 1943.

Athon’s remains were buried in Grave #27, Row D, East Division Cemetery on Betio, This mass grave was lost in the years after the battle, and Athon was declared non-recoverable in 1949.

Row D was discovered by the non-profit research group History Flight in the spring of 2019. Athon’s remains were among those recovered, and he was identified by the DPAA in July of 2020.

CENOTAPHS

Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial

FINAL BURIAL
Mount Moriah Cemetery, Withamsville, Ohio