A member of the Greatest Generation who called Petal home is coming back for burial more than eight decades after being killed in action during one of the most intense battles of World War II.
Graveside services for Marine Corps SGT Harold Hammett, who was 24 when he perished on November 20, 1943 at the Battle of Tarawa, will be held at 2 p.m. February 16 at Roseland Park Cemetery, 1202 West 7thStreet in Hattiesburg. For the past 81 years, Hammett has been interred on Betio Island in South Tarawa.
“It’s a very good honor that we were able to bring my uncle home,” said Dwayne Williams, a Texas resident who is Hammett’s nephew. “I know that all my brothers and sisters are extremely happy about it, and most of my cousins are going to try to make it (to the services).
“Unfortunately, my mother and all of her siblings have passed away, but all of our lives, we’ve always talked about how my grandfather had left a (burial) site between him and my grandmother. He left a plot there, and he always told us that’s where he wanted his boy to be coming home (to). We’re more than happy about him coming home, and we’re excited and glad for him to be on American soil and back home.”
Hammett was born in Forrest County on February 16, 1919, to parents Emry Holmes Hammett and Eva Jane Sharp Hammett. He was the fifth child born to the couple.
Hammett graduated in 1939 from East Forrest Consolidated High School and was a member of Carterville Baptist Church in Petal. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in San Francisco on August 26, 1940, and was sent to the South Pacific in July 1942.
Hammett took place in the Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu-Tanambogo on August 7-9, 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the war’s Guadalcanal campaign. After being wounded at that battle, he was hospitalized in New Zealand while awaiting orders for his next mission.
While serving with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marines, Hammett landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. That division’s task was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll, thereby preventing the Japanese imperial forces from getting closer to the United States while enabling U.S. forces to get closer to mainland Japan.
After being killed at the Battle of Tarawa – which is widely known as one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater, taking the lives of approximately 1,000 Marines over the course of three days – Hammett was buried on Betio Island. That site was chosen by the Marines as a temporary location until the fallen could be recovered and returned to their families.
Meanwhile, Hammett’s family accepted the Purple Heart and Presidential Unit Citation to recognize his service and sacrifice.
Hammett is memorialized among the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific’s Honolulu Memorial, where his name is permanently inscribed within Court 3 of the “Courts of the Missing.”
However, on January 20, 2013, Jennifer Morrison, an independent volunteer forensic genealogist, found Hammett’s family and provided their contact information to the Marine Corps POW/MIA Section. This contact re-established lines of communication with Hammett’s family regarding the ongoing recovery and repatriation efforts, and offered his sister and niece the opportunity to provide the Family Reference DNA Sample, which was necessary for his identification. Although previous efforts to recover Hammett’s body had been unsuccessful – leading to a military review board classifying him as “non-recoverable” – his remains were finally identified after Morrison’s efforts.
“I’m very honored, and I’m glad that he was able to serve, but unfortunately he was killed during the first day (of that battle),” Williams said. “He was in the Marines for about three years, and that’s why we’re still a free country, is because of his sacrifice.”
Williams said while he doesn’t have an exact number he expects for the turnout at the graveside services, he hopes many people will show up to pay their respects.
“I’m trying to get the word out,” he said. “We have a lot of kin that live around Petal and Hattiesburg and Laurel, and we’re just trying to get the word out that we have an uncle coming in.
“I know we’ve got some third, fourth and fifth cousins we’ve contacted. We’re hoping to have 30, 40 or 50 people, or anybody that would love to come out. We’d definitely appreciate it.”
Hammett’s siblings include Genevieve Hammett Smith, Luther Dee Hammett, Cornelia Hammett Adkins, Emry Holmes Hammett, Madge Hammett Hall and Joan Hammett Williams. Emry Holmes Hammett also served with the military and was stationed in Honolulu at the time of his brother’s death.
