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WWII Marine buried in Mississippi 78 years after death

NEWTON, Miss. — The body of a U.S. Marine killed in the Pacific during World War II was returned to his home state after 78 years to be buried.

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Cpl. Quentin Weldon McCall, 23, who died Nov 23, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa Atoll, was buried at the Mississippi Memorial Cemetery in Newton on Monday, The Meridian Star reported.

McCall, the youngest of eight children, had fought at Guadalcanal and was in the Gilbert Islands when he was killed by a sniper, according to WJTV. McCall had been part of India Company, Third Battalion, 6th Marines forces ordered to take control of a Japanese airstrip on the Tarawa Atoll, according to the Star.

McCall was buried on Betio Island in a mass grave of American servicemen, WJTV reported. The gravesite was discovered in 2019, and the defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirmed McCall’s remains on Sept. 27, 2019, according to the Star.

McCall’s name was memorialized in Honolulu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Returning McCall to Mississippi was hampered due to delays in the identification process and then by the coronavirus pandemic, the Star reported.

McCall was born Aug. 13, 1920, in Union Church, and enlisted in the Marines on May 7, 1942, according to the newspaper. He was deployed to the Pacific in October 1942.

Marcus Lawson, the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Director of Cemeteries, said it was an honor to attend the service.

“I would like to thank you for the honor and the privilege to be the final resting spot for Cpl. McCall,” Lawson said. “It’s an honor for myself and my staff to be called the final resting spot, where he will forever be remembered for the ultimate sacrifice he made to our great nation.”

In a proclamation signed Thursday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared Oct. 25, 2021, a day of mourning in remembrance of McCall, the Star reported. In a Facebook post announcing the proclamation, Reeves said Mississippians were in McCall’s debt.

“To come here and not know this gentleman personally but to understand what he did for this country and for you and I is the ultimate sacrifice,” Ray Coleman, director of communication with Mississippi Veterans Affairs, told WTOK. “I think for the family it’s important for them to know, and for anyone that knew Cpl. McCall to know that here at the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Newton he will never be forgotten. That’s the beauty of our state memorial cemetery. When they come here, it’s their final resting place to be amongst heroes as themselves and they will never, ever be forgotten.”

McCall’s brother, Thomas McCall, served in France during World War II. He named his first son after his brother when the boy was born Aug. 10, 1949, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported at the time.

Billy Covington, who was 12 when Quentin McCall enlisted in the Marines, visited Chancellor Funeral Home in Bryam to pay his respects to his first cousin, WJTV reported.