Battle of Kwajalein 75th Anniversary Commemoration at the WWII Memorial
January 31, 2019 @ 11:30AM — 12:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
A special 75th anniversary ceremony marking the Pacific campaign of World War II on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
On Thursday, January 31st at 11:30 a.m., the Friends of the National World War II Memorial will hold a brief ceremony and wreath presentation to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Kwajalein, an amphibious assault on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands as part of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.
The Battle of Kwajalein took place from January 31 to February 3, 1944. Employing the hard-learned lessons of the Battle of Tarawa, the United States launched a successful twin assault on the main islands of Kwajalein in the south and Roi-Namur in the north.
For the United States, the battle represented both the next step in its "island-hopping" march to Japan and a significant morale victory because it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere.
During the January 31st ceremony at the World War II Memorial, WWII veterans and their families will present wreaths at the Pacific Arch of the Memorial in honor of the nearly 47,000 Americans who served and in remembrance of the 348 Americans killed and more than 1,600 wounded or missing during the Battle of Kwajalein.
If you are a World War II veteran, or know of one, who would like to participate in the
Battle of Kwajalein 75th Anniversary Commemoration at the Memorial,
please email hrotondi@wwiimemorialfriends.org!
We hope you'll join us on January 31st at the WWII Memorial!
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial's WWII 75th Anniversary Commemoration is generously sponsored by AT&T.
Generous support has also been provided by the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation and Worthington Industries.