'Our people never forgot': World War II Marine Elden Grimm buried in Neenah

NEENAH - Elden Grimm is finally home.

Grimm, a Menasha native, died Nov. 25, 1943, in the fierce fighting against Japanese troops on the Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands during World War II.

He was buried Saturday afternoon at Oak Hill Cemetery in Neenah, nearly 75 years after his death.

His flag-draped casket was carried by a group of uniformed Marines, who stood by as Navy Cmdr. Jonathan Szczesny addressed Grimm's relatives during the burial service.

"He gave his life for what he believed in," Szczesny said.

Szczesny said he was inspired by Grimm's story and honored to be part of the ceremony.

“Our people never forgot those that didn’t come home,” he said.

The battle on the Tarawa atoll was a major victory for the U.S. in the Pacific. The Gilbert Islands provided the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet a place to launch assaults against the Marshall and Caroline islands, and advance the campaign against Japan.

Grimm was one of about 1,000 Marines killed in the fighting. About 2,000 more were wounded.

“They went on that atoll knowing not many would come off," Szczesny said. "He went ahead and went forward. That’s very inspiring. He believed in the cause that much.”

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Many of the Marines who died in the battle were later recovered and identified, but the identities of many others, including Grimm, could not immediately be determined. Grimm was not accounted for until Sept. 26, 2017.

The men who died in the battle were initially buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. In 1947, the U.S. Army began to disinter remains and bring them to a laboratory in Oahu, Hawaii, for identification.

A set of remains later identified as Grimm could not be identified at the time and were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In 2016, due to advances in forensic technology, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began to exhume unidentified remains associated with the fighting on Tarawa and send them to a laboratory for analysis.

Grimm's remains were identified using dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis, which matched his records.

The large gray stone above his grave in Neenah is engraved: "He made the supreme sacrifice in active combat on a distant shore."