Isolated grave marked with the name of Sergeant Fae V. Moore. Moore, a mortar section sergeant with E/2/8th Marines, was killed in action on 20 November 1943.
This grave is thought to be either a memorial, or the result of a misidentification. Sergeant Moore’s unit landed on Beach Red 3, and he was killed in the vicinity shortly after coming ashore. This memorial grave, by contrast, was located on the western coast of Betio near Beach Green. Marine Corps Graves Registration stated that Moore was buried in “East Division Cemetery, Row A, Grave 13,” and he had another memorial marker in the reconstructed Cemetery 33 (Plot 15, Row 2, Grave 5).
In 2015, non-profit organization History Flight located the lost Cemetery 27; Moore’s remains were among those recovered from that trench burial. He was accounted for in 2016. (Cemetery 27 was also known on some records as Division Cemetery 3, another possible reason for the discrepancy.)
The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company did not report the recovery of any remains from Isolated Grave 3 during their 1946 expedition. It is not known who, if anyone, was originally buried here.
