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When a representative from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) told Cheryl Cronin that her uncle, Marine Pvt. First Class Lawrence E. Garrison had been positively identified 80 years after his death in battle, she was overwhelmed. “I prayed really hard that this would happen in my lifetime,” she said. On Oct. 5, 2023, Cronin and a handful of family and friends laid Garrison to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Garrison fell to Japanese fire during the amphibious assault on the tiny island of Betio, part of the Tarawa Atoll, on Nov. 20, 1943. The bloody battle—in which most Marines had to wade ashore under heavy fire after their landing crafts were hung up on a coral reef—was one of the first Allied advances towards Japan during World War II. Once the fighting stopped three days later, Garrison was buried on the island as an unknown.
At the end of the war, the unknowns from battle were interred in Hawaii’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2016, the DPAA disinterred those unknowns and began the research to identify them. A year later, Garrison’s remains were positively established, and DPAA contacted Cronin.
At the funeral service, Navy Chaplain (Lt.) Dirk Robinson spoke about Garrison’s love of sports as a high school student, including wrestling, football, and track. Robinson also highlighted Garrison’s faith by reading part of a letter he had sent his sister four days before his death. “Just remember that God has a plan for each of us,” Robinson recited. He concluded his remarks by telling the mourners, “Lawrence was the very epitome of Semper Fi—always faithful—and we are thankful to lay him to rest today on these sacred grounds.”
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After the firing of three volleys and the sounding of Taps, the Marine Honor Guard folded the flag draped over Garrison’s casket, and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz presented it to Cronin. Chaplain Robinson, a Marine sergeant and a cemetery official then shook Cronin’s hand. The last person to shake her hand was DPAA’s Director of Outreach and Communications Mark Abueg, who thanked her for allowing DPAA to play a role in bringing her uncle home and expressed hope that the funeral would bring her family closure. The service ended with each family member laying a rose on Garrison’s casket.
After the service, Cronin, whose own father had been a Marine, talked about her family’s feeling of loss following her uncle’s death. “My family told me how difficult it was on my grandfather in his declining years,” she said.
Cronin added that she had planned to bury her uncle with her father until a funeral home professional told her that Garrison would be honored beyond her lifetime at ANC. “I really liked that that there would always be someone looking out for him,” she explained. Retired Marine Maj. Wendell “Buck” Farmer, Garrison’s great nephew, agreed. “He died in combat,” said Farmer. “This is where he belongs.”