{"id":31795,"date":"2021-06-29T20:16:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T20:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/29\/77-years-later-a-ww2-marine-is-laid-to-rest\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:29:29","slug":"77-years-later-a-ww2-marine-is-laid-to-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/2021\/06\/29\/77-years-later-a-ww2-marine-is-laid-to-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"77 years later, a WW2 Marine is laid to rest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than 77 years after giving the ultimate sacrifice while fighting in World War II, Marine Sgt. Donald Stoddard was laid to rest in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marine went missing in November 1943, when he, along with the rest of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, assaulted the Japanese Army on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll,<\/a> Republic of Kiribati, according to a Marine Corps press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it has been decades since the Marine gave the ultimate sacrifice, he came home to a plot that had been reserved for him by his parents during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis parents had so much faith in our country that they actually reserved a plot and headstone for him all those years ago, knowing that knew he would be brought home to be buried here next to them,\u201d retired Marine Maj. Gen. William F. Mullen III, said during the funeral, according to the Corps. <\/p>\n\n\n\t