World War II Marine buried in West Virginia

OAK HILL, W.Va. – A U.S. Marine from West Virginia whose remains were identified more than a half-century after he was killed during a World War II battle on a Pacific island has been buried with full military honours.

Marine Corps Reserve Pfc. Joe Lukie was buried Saturday in Oak Hill. The 19-year-old resident of Harvey was killed in November 1943 on the small island of Betio while serving with the 2nd Marine Division.

The Defence POW-MIA Accounting Agency says service members who died in the battle were buried in battlefield cemeteries on the island. By 1949 the remains of Lukie and others who had not been identified were interred in Honolulu.

According to the agency, Lukie’s remains were sent to a laboratory in 2017 and identified through DNA analysis and other means.