An East Tennessee family is planning the military funeral for a Marine killed in combat almost 74 years ago. William F. Cavin was killed in action just days before his 19th birthday.
“Oh, I’m wonderfully grateful,” said Steve Sessoms after learning the military had identified the remains of his “Uncle Frank” who was killed in the opening hours of the three-day fight on the south pacific island of Tarawa in World War II.
THE BATTLE ON TARAWA
The hundreds of Marines landing on that small patch of coral faced a hellfire of bullets and mortars reminiscent of the scene troops endured wading into Omaha Beach during D-Day from landing crafts stuck in waist high water.
“(Tarawa) was one of the bloodiest days in Marine Corps history and we are still trying to get those Marines identified and brought home to their families,” said combat veteran 1st Sgt. Gabriel Burns who is tasked with escorting the remains of Private First Class Cavin home to East Tennessee in the fall of 2018.
THE MARINE: WILLIAM F. CAVIN
William Cavin lost his mother barely a month after he was born. The youngest of three siblings grew up in the hills and hollers of Hancock County.
At age 16, the boy's friends and family knew him as “Frank”, enlisted in the Marine Corps. That was the fall of 1941, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December that drove the United States into war.
Within two years PFC Cavin was in the thick of the fight during the opening attack on Tarawa where he was hit by small arms and then suffered blast injuries that left the 18-year-old mortally wounded. A letter from a fellow Marine to the Cavin family said, “he passed calmly and very quietly. His was not only a great loss to his family but to us also.”
THE SEARCH
A swab of DNA from the cheek of a cousin, finally helped researchers match remains uncovered on Tarawa in 2013 to another set of remains buried in the “unknown” section of the Punchbowl National Cemetery in 1949. The identification process spanned more than 70 years. It included complications involving the exact burial site on Tarawa and the development of better technology using DNA, X-ray, and dental records.
“There are still at least over 400 Marines still missing and unidentified from Tarawa, but we have a team on the island. The (non-profit) History Flight is currently on the island as we speak,” said Army Veteran Hattie Johnson who now works for the Marine Corps and spends her days flying across the country bringing news to families of missing and unidentified Marines that their remains have been recovered.
“It’s very emotional for me, and also the job, bringing these guys home,” said Ms. Johnson.
THE HOMECOMING
Family members plan to bury PFC Cavin with full military honors in the family plot by mid-September of this year, almost 75 years after the East Tennessee teenager died in combat some 7,000 miles from home. Claude Cavin was just five years-old when his cousin “Frank” was killed. “It’d be a relief to know he was back home…the ones left needed the closure.”